Scientists might one day monitor these crucial chemical signals to determine the health of marine ecosystems.
of the covert chemicals released by two species of coral and three types of algae in the reefs of French Polynesia. Unlike these organisms, however, the human team couldn’t simply take a big "sniff" underwater.
Instead, they incubated the specimens in small aquariums for an eight-hour daytime period, during which photosynthesis occurred, and a separate eight-hour nighttime period. The reefwater that Wegley Kelly and her colleagues extracted and analyzed after each period — using a technique known as untargeted tandem mass spectrometry — revealed more than 1,000 distinct molecules, including modified amino acids, vitamins and steroids.
As a result, some bacteria grew fast, some grew fat and others grew in high numbers. “We're also seeing this happen on a natural reef, when that reef changes because of anthropogenic disturbances,” says Wegley Kelly. “When you remove too many of the fish that graze algae, for example, the algae overgrow the coral.” That, in turn, impacts microbial communities.It’s not only about the food web.
“I think that you could use the chemistry to diagnose the health of the reef, certainly,” says Wegley Kelly, adding that more than 85 percent of the molecules her team identified were unique to just one organism — a remarkable specificity. “We've talked about doing these global surveys of the chemical milieu of reefs, all over the world, just to see how they would compare.”
In the future, her team plans to look at what else the molecules get up to while floating around reefs. Which disappear rapidly? Which build up in the water? Are some taken up directly by other species? These answers could bring researchers a step closer to preserving our oceanic oases.
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