Question

Corals grow in tropical and sub-tropical areas. Investigate whether: (a) do predominant coral species have seasonal phenology that would be shifted by climate change, and (b) would this have an indirect effect on other species? (e.g. mutualisms)

Answer 1

a. The study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how they are influenced by a change in a factor is called phenology. certain events come in a cyclle in the growth of a plant or the behaviour of an animal. a change in the climate bringa a lot of changes in a plant or an animal. A plant may shed it's leaves or an animal may go for hibernation. In case of a predominant coral population the change of climate will induce this change in behaviour. Not only climate, but also habitat factors are also responsible for life cycle events of these organisms - corals. The climate of tropical and sub-tropical areas undergo a few changes throughout and thus the behaviour changes as well.

b.Mutualism is where 2 organisms get benefitted from each other.If one of them undergoes a change in it's habit, the other one will also be effected..The corals and algae have mutualistic relationship. The corals provide the compounds needed to the algae, which in return give oxygen to the corals and also help them to remove wastes.Not only that, the algae are responsible for the beautiful colours of the corals. But, if the coral becomes non-functional, the algae population may have to shift towards a new host for its survival. The non-functional impact or behaviour can be due to seasonal behaviour in the tropics which are exposed to climatic extremes.

It might be noted that corals live in sea water which have uniform climatic conditions throughout. But here, I have considered the existence of climatic changes and the subsequent behaviours thereof.