DAILY BUDGETS OF PHOTOSYNTHETICALLY FIXED CARBON IN SYMBIOTIC ZOANTHIDS

¹ Department of Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024

We tested the hypothesis that some zoanthids are able to meet a portion of their daily respiratory carbon requirement with photosynthetic carbon from symbiotic algal cells (= zooxanthellae). A daily budget was constructed for carbon (C) photosynthetically fixed by zooxanthellae of the Bermuda zoanthids Zoanthus sociatus and Palythoa variabilis.

Zooxanthellae have an average net photosynthetic C fixation of 7.48 and 15.56 µgC·polyp^–1·day^–1 for Z. sociatus and P. variabilis respectively. The C-specific growth rate (µ_c) was 0.215·day^–1 for Z. sociatus and 0.152·day^–1 for P. variabilis. The specific growth rate (µ) of zooxanthellae in the zoanthids was measured to be 0.011 and 0.017·day^–1 for Z. sociatus and P. variabilis zooxanthellae respectively. Z. sociatus zooxanthellae translocated 95.1% of the C assimilated in photosynthesis, while P. variabilis zooxanthellae translocated 88.8% of their fixed C. As the animal tissue of a polyp of Z. sociatus required 14.75 µgC·day^–1 for respiration, and one of P. variabiis required 105.54 µgC·day^–1, the contribution of zooxanthellae to animal respiration (CZAR) was 48.2% for Z. sociatus and 13.1% for P. variabilis.