THE ROLE OF ZOOPLANKTON IN THE NUTRITION OF SOME SCLERACTINIAN CORALS1

Abstract

Over 15 days of continuous monitoring, the mean nocturnal concentration of drifting net zooplankton in a coral reef community on the Bermuda platform was 0.83 mg m−3. The mean respiration rate of reef‐building corals at the study site was calculated to be 6.4 g O2 day−1 m−2 of reef bottom. Using these data we show that the energy requirement of these corals was more than an order of magnitude greater than the energy they could obtain by capturing the sparse zooplankton in the surrounding waters.The question follows, why, if corals can exist in the absence of energetically significant quantities of zooplankton, do their elaborate anatomic modifications for catching zooplankton persist? Evidence indicates that corals cannot obtain their phosphorus requirements from solution. We therefore suggest that relatively small amounts of zooplankton may be important as a source of phosphorus and perhaps of other essential nutrients for both the coral and its algal symbionts.