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LEDs light spectrum effect on the success of fragmentation and growth of the leather coral Sarcophyton spp.

Cátia Fernandes1*, Catarina Mendes1*, André Moreira1*, João Chambel1, Rui Rocha2, Sergio Leandro1 and Rui Pedrosa1
  • 1 School of Tourism and Maritime Technology, Marine Resources Research Group, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal
  • 2 Departamento de Biologia & CESAM, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus de Santiago, Portugal

The increasing demand for soft corals is reflected on the high attention of the scientific community during the last decades, with several studies focus on production techniques and optimization of coral husbandry (Schlacher et al., 2007;Sella and Benayahu, 2010). However, coral culture success is influenced by the interaction of different factors, such as water movement, temperature, nutrients, heterotrophic feeding and light conditions (Rocha et al., 2013a). Light plays a key role in the growth, reproduction and physiology of scleractinian corals that host phototrophic symbionts and it has been found that the photoresponse of corals is species-specific. Several studies have already focused on the effects of irradiance on coral and its algal symbionts (Osinga et al., 2011). Although, only a few works have investigated the role of the spectral quality of light on coral photobiology, physiology and growth (Rocha et al., 2013b)). In the present study, we hypothesize that light spectrum can influence the growth performance of scleractinian corals when exposed at identical intensities of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). To test our hypothesis we evaluated the effect of contrasting light spectra with an identical PAR of 70 ± 10 μmol quantam−2.s−1emitted by T8 fluorescent lamps (used as a control treatment) and three different colours of Light Emitting Diode (LED), white, blue and red. It was evaluated survival and growth rates of Sarcophyton spp., an important scleractinian coral in the marine aquarium trade and for the bioprospecting of marine natural compounds. Replicated coral fragments were obtained from two mother colonies and were exposed to the four types of light spectrum for a period of 30 days. At the end of the experiment period, the results showed 100% of survival in coral fragments, and specific growth rate (SGR) of 0,055 ± 0,09 %/day in control group and 0,091 ± 0,019 %/day, 0,210 ± 0,031 %/day and 0,380 ± 0,245 %/day in, white, blue and red light, respectively. The results also showed a positive role of use a specific light spectrum in coral growth, namely blue and red spectrum. The use of light with specific light spectrum that increasing the growth and health of corals will minimizing the production costs, increasing the feasibility of ex situ production of ornamental scleractinian corals and this study identify the best LED`s light spectrum for the growth of the leather coral Sarcophyton spp.

References

Osinga, R., Schutter, M., Griffioen, B., Wijffels, R., Verreth, J.J., Shafir, S., Henard, S., Taruffi, M., Gili, C., and Lavorano, S. (2011). The Biology and Economics of Coral Growth. Marine Biotechnology 13, 658-671. doi: 10.1007/s10126-011-9382-7.
Rocha, R.J.M., Calado, R., Cartaxana, P., Furtado, J., and Serôdio, J. (2013a). Photobiology and growth of leather coral Sarcophyton cf. glaucum fragments stocked under low light in a recirculated system. Aquaculture 414–415, 235-242. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2013.08.018.
Rocha, R.J.M., Pimentel, T., Serôdio, J., Rosa, R., and Calado, R. (2013b). Comparative performance of light emitting plasma (LEP) and light emitting diode (LED) in ex situ aquaculture of scleractinian corals. Aquaculture 402–403, 38-45. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2013.03.028.
Schlacher, T.A., Stark, J., and Fischer, A.B.P. (2007). Evaluation of artificial light regimes and substrate types for aquaria propagation of the staghorn coral Acropora solitaryensis. Aquaculture 269, 278-289. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2007.04.085.
Sella, I., and Benayahu, Y. (2010). Rearing cuttings of the soft coral Sarcophyton glaucum (Octocorallia, Alcyonacea): towards mass production in a closed seawater system. Aquaculture Research 41, 1748-1758. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2109.2009.02475.x.

Keywords: Coral propagation, Sarcophyton spp, Coral growth, Marine ornamentals, light spectrum

Conference: IMMR | International Meeting on Marine Research 2014, Peniche, Portugal, 10 Jul - 11 Jul, 2014.

Presentation Type: Poster Presentation

Topic: AQUACULTURE

Citation: Fernandes C, Mendes C, Moreira A, Chambel J, Rocha R, Leandro S and Pedrosa R (2014). LEDs light spectrum effect on the success of fragmentation and growth of the leather coral Sarcophyton spp.. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: IMMR | International Meeting on Marine Research 2014. doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2014.02.00137

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Received: 10 May 2014; Published Online: 18 Jul 2014.

* Correspondence:
Miss. Cátia Fernandes, School of Tourism and Maritime Technology, Marine Resources Research Group, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Peniche, Portugal, catiamarquesfernandes@hotmail.com
Miss. Catarina Mendes, School of Tourism and Maritime Technology, Marine Resources Research Group, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Peniche, Portugal, catarinamendes93@hotmail.com
Mr. André Moreira, School of Tourism and Maritime Technology, Marine Resources Research Group, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Peniche, Portugal, manhunxa@gmail.com