Reef-building coral may feed more efficiently by using tiny hair-like structures to generate food-carrying conveyer belts in the water running across their surface.
The surface of each polyp is covered in tiny hairs called cilia. Previous studies have found that the polyps can use their cilia to generate vertical currents that lift water – and anything that is suspended in it – up and away from the reef surface. This is thought to help remove potentially harmful microbes and debris from the coral surface, and possibly also draw food down towards the coral.
“This study really came out of the blue. We were originally adding fluorescent beads to coral surfaces for another experiment and noticed they started to move in an interesting way,” saysat the Medical University of Vienna. “So we followed this up and found that, in every coral we tested, there were these horizontal currents that connect the individual polyps into one organism, which would allow polyps to share food [such as plankton].
The researchers also found that the currents flowed in such a way that individual polyps would mainly share food with neighboring polyps.
Interesting
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Watch coral reefs ‘eat’ using conveyer belts made of mucusVideos reveal how invertebrates transport water and nutrients Isn't that how everyone eats?
Source: NewsfromScience - 🏆 515. / 51 Read more »
Most of the Great Barrier Reef Coral Studied This Year Was BleachedAustralian government scientists say 91 percent of the Great Barrier Reef coral surveyed this year was bleached, though scientists hope that most of the coral affected this year will recover.
Source: NBCNewYork - 🏆 270. / 63 Read more »
91% of reefs studied on Great Barrier Reef hit by coral bleaching over Australian summer'Unusually, this was the first mass bleaching event to occur under La Niña conditions,' government report notes. Humans are a virus
Source: axios - 🏆 302. / 63 Read more »
Researchers Grew Tiny Plants in Moon Dirt Collected Decades AgoThe seedlings sprouted in the regolith scooped up in the 1960s and ’70s, but astronauts won’t be harvesting lunar spuds anytime soon. I’m going on a date with my pillow! Goodnight :) According to the Communications Biology article (Fig1b shows the plate 10 layout), the picture in your tweet depicts the plants grown in the JSC1A regolith simulant. The plants grown in the actual 'moon dirt', the lunar regolith, didn't fare so well... This is a win for plant scientists globally. Congratulations guys on this great achievement. Let's see if flowers will be produced
Source: WIREDScience - 🏆 385. / 55 Read more »
The Tiny Country That Could Be Russia’s Next TargetA Russian-speaking separatist state might become a decisive frontier. So if I were the Moldovans I would offer USA/EU a staging base there ahead of a Russian Power play which IS coming as an attack on Ukraine West.
Source: Slate - 🏆 716. / 51 Read more »
A tiny graphene device could detect neutrinos from the big bangNeutrinos from the early universe have never been detected directly but a device that uses the atom-thick material graphene might be able to change that
Source: newscientist - 🏆 541. / 51 Read more »