Coral Biology

Coral biology in the recent years has become one of the important subjects in the Marine Science field. Since coral reefs are one of the most important ecosystems in terms of Biodiversity and there is increased destruction of their habitat all over the world due to various human and natural effects, it has become increasingly necessary to understand their effects on corals at the cellular level.

Coral biology involves study of various aspects of coral biology like cellular biology, molecular biology and ecology of coral behaviour. Most important being the symbiotic relationship of dinoflagellate and the cniderian host. The mechanism of bleaching is still unclear. Resaerchers have not been able to understand as to what causes to the loss of the dinoflagellates during a bleaching effect. Is it the Coral animal that expel's the symbiotic partner or is it the zooxanthellae that escapes or is is the combination of both the partners. Undearstanding this behaviour is one of the important aspects of coral biology.