According to a new study, the coral reef is said to release chemicals which is used as a signal to call fish for help when they are attacked by toxic seaweeds.
Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have come across an interesting discovery. According to a study, evidence was found that the coral reef use chemicals as an SOS message to fish. When they are threatened by toxic seaweeds, they release a certain chemical which alter the fish that come and quickly attack the seaweed. If these algae are not removed, it could cause the death of the coral reef.
"This symbiotic relationship between the fish and the coral on which they live is the first known example of one species chemically signaling a consumer species to remove competitors," said Mark Hay, a professor in the School of Biology at Georgia Tech. "It is similar to the symbiotic relationship between Acacia trees and mutualist ants in which the ants receive food and shelter while protecting the trees from both competitors and consumers.
"This species of coral is recruiting inch-long bodyguards," he said. "There is a careful and nuanced dance of the odors that makes all this happen. The fish have evolved to cue on the odor released into the water by the coral, and they very quickly take care of the problem."
The findings were made during a long-term study of chemicals released in the coral reefs near Fiji. The study was an endeavor to increase the scientific understanding to this endangered ecosystems and well as find out if the chemicals released her could have any pharmaceutical value.
"Because they control the growth of seaweeds that damage coral, the importance of large herbivorous fish to maintaining the health of coral reefs has been known for some time. But Georgia Tech postdoctoral fellow Danielle Dixson suspected that the role of the gobies might be more complicated. To study that relationship, she and Hay set up a series of experiments to observe how the fish would respond when the coral that shelters them was threatened."
"They studied Acropora nasuta, a species in a genus of coral important to reef ecosystems because it grows rapidly and provides much of the structure for reefs. To threaten the coral, the researchers moved filaments of Chlorodesmis fastigiata, a species of seaweed that is particularly chemically toxic to corals, into contact with the coral. Within a few minutes of the seaweed contacting the coral, two species of gobies - Gobidon histrio and Paragobidon enchinocephalus - moved toward the site of contact and began neatly trimming away the offending seaweed."
