{"id":43074,"date":"2025-04-09T13:03:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T23:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.soest.hawaii.edu\/soestwp\/?p=43074"},"modified":"2025-04-15T13:08:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T23:08:16","slug":"coral-reefs-exude-microbial-recycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.soest.hawaii.edu\/soestwp\/announce\/news\/coral-reefs-exude-microbial-recycling\/","title":{"rendered":"Coral reefs exude myriad chemicals, feeding tiny ocean recyclers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New research revealed the remarkable chemical diversity of substances exuded by coral reefs and demonstrated that thousands of different chemicals derived from tropical corals and seaweeds are available for microbes to decompose and utilize. The study, published recently in Environmental Microbiology<\/em><\/a> by an international team led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography <\/a>(SIO) and University of Hawai\u2018i (UH) at M\u0101noa<\/a> scientists, provides crucial insights into the intricate relationships between coral reefs, marine microorganisms, and the carbon cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In dynamic ecosystems, and especially in the nutrient-limited environments where coral reefs grow, not much will go to waste. Microbes dominate when it comes to decomposing, recycling, and transforming what other organisms discard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve known that some of the substances exuded on coral reefs, termed exometabolites, are available for microbial metabolism,\u201d said Craig Nelson, professor in the UH M\u0101noa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology<\/a>. \u201cHowever, in this study, we discovered that the number and variety of exometabolites that microbes find useful is much higher than previously considered, and includes hundreds of compounds spanning most of the broad chemical classifications.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were especially surprised to discover that exometabolites belonging to chemical families traditionally thought to be harder for microbes to break down, such as benzene rings, terpenoids, and steroids, were among those that are able to be utilized,\u201d said Zachary Quinlan, lead author, postdoctoral researcher at the Hawai\u2018i Institute of Marine Biology<\/a> in SOEST, and former graduate student at SIO. \u201cOur results paint a highly dynamic picture of ecosystem production of bioavailable substrates and their effects on microbial metabolism relevant to carbon cycling in coastal marine environments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Two
Lead author Zach Quinlan and co-author Jacqui Comstock prepare coral fragments for experiments. Credit: Craig Nelson.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Carbon cycle and reef resilience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Combined, all of the dissolved organic material in the ocean, including the chemicals exuded by coral reefs, contains an amount of carbon comparable to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. So, the study authors point out, how microbes utilize this organic material has a major influence on the global carbon cycle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When there is a shift in the types of organisms living on a reef, that is stony corals versus fleshy seaweeds, the chemistry of the seawater also changes. In addition to their detailed study of what chemicals are being exuded on the reef, the research team also conducted experiments to determine whether microbes preferred to use substances from stony corals or seaweed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe observed that coral and algae can selectively facilitate the growth of specific microbial communities by exuding distinct chemicals that can be used by specific types of microbes,\u201d said Linda Wegley Kelly, senior author on the study and associate researcher at SIO. \u201cOur results highlight how shifting from coral-dominated to algae-dominated reefs can alter reef ecosystem function and impact resilience of the system, potentially making it more susceptible to disease or bleaching.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the future, the team aims to continue discovering how chemical features can inform coral reef management and be used to advance coral restoration success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read also on <\/p>\n\n\n\n

, Phys.org<\/a>, and Eurekalert<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New research revealed the remarkable chemical diversity of substances exuded by coral reefs and demonstrated that thousands of different chemicals derived from tropical corals and seaweeds are available for microbes to decompose and utilize. The study, published recently in Environmental Microbiology by an international team led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) and University of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":43075,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soest.hawaii.edu\/soestwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soest.hawaii.edu\/soestwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soest.hawaii.edu\/soestwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soest.hawaii.edu\/soestwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soest.hawaii.edu\/soestwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43074"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.soest.hawaii.edu\/soestwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43178,"href":"https:\/\/www.soest.hawaii.edu\/soestwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43074\/revisions\/43178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soest.hawaii.edu\/soestwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soest.hawaii.edu\/soestwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soest.hawaii.edu\/soestwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soest.hawaii.edu\/soestwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}