Staghorn
coral larvae don’t have eyes. Yet shifting the color of underwater
light can reverse their usual preferences for spots to settle.
Horizontal surfaces bathed in blue-green light attract more larvae of Acropora millepora coral than normal, says behavioral ecologist Marie Strader of the University of Texas at Austin. And vertical surfaces lit through red filters attract fewer than normal larvae, she and her colleagues report October 7 in Royal Society Open Science.
Such subtleties of color could serve as one of the cues that larvae use to pick a good place to settle down and start calcifying, Strader proposes. “It’s the most important decision they make in their lives,” she says.
Horizontal surfaces bathed in blue-green light attract more larvae of Acropora millepora coral than normal, says behavioral ecologist Marie Strader of the University of Texas at Austin. And vertical surfaces lit through red filters attract fewer than normal larvae, she and her colleagues report October 7 in Royal Society Open Science.
Such subtleties of color could serve as one of the cues that larvae use to pick a good place to settle down and start calcifying, Strader proposes. “It’s the most important decision they make in their lives,” she says.
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