| 研究実績の概要 |
The goal of this project is to investigate some inter-connections between communities of the decapods involved in exosymbiotic assemblages and Symbiodinium involved in endosymbiotic assemblages and their ecological role for corals from deep vs. shallow reefs of Okinawa. With that purpose, the 2-year JSPS project has been conceived under two main parts based on: 1) a comparative evaluation of diversity of endo- and exo-symbiotic communities associated to deep vs. shallow corals, and 2) the role of the endo- and exo-symbiotic communities in the resistance and fitness of a deep coral translocated from deep to shallow reefs.
At the moment, after a preliminary site prospection phase around Okinawa and Sesoko islands, different mesophotic and shallow reefs have been selected and used to investigate the different project parts. For the Part 1 a survey of the coral-symbionts biodiversity started with sampling of shallow corals. Each selected coral colonies were sampled in individual plastic bags and bring back to the station, where the endo- and exo-symbionts have been isolated and conserved for further genetic analyses. Currently, more than 300 exosymbionts, mostly from crab, shrimp and fishes groups, have been extracted, photographed and prepared for DNA-barcoding, in order to constitute a catalog of associated coral symbionts.
For the part 2, deep corals have been sampled, isolated from their exosymbiotic communities (used in part 1), glued on individual support and deployed at 40 m and 20 m. In addition, molecular work has been developed and performed on first samples.
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