Torres-Pérez Juan L, Guild Liane S, Armstrong Roy A, Corredor Jorge, Zuluaga-Montero Anabella, Polanco Ramón
Bay Area Environmental Research Institute/NASA Ames Research Center, MS 245-4, Bldg 245, Rm. 120, Moffett Field, CA, 94035, United States of America.
Earth Science Division, NASA Ames Research Center, MS 245-4, Bldg 245, Rm. 120, P.O. Box 1, Moffett Field, CA, 94035, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2015 Nov 30;10(11):e0143709. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0143709. eCollection 2015.
Reef corals typically contain a number of pigments, mostly due to their symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic dinoflagellates. These pigments usually vary in presence and concentration and influence the spectral characteristics of corals. We studied the variations in pigment composition among seven Caribbean shallow-water Scleractinian corals by means of High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analysis to further resolve the discrimination of corals. We found a total of 27 different pigments among the coral species, including some alteration products of the main pigments. Additionally, pigments typically found in endolithic algae were also identified. A Principal Components Analysis and a Hierarchical Cluster Analysis showed the separation of coral species based on pigment composition. All the corals were collected under the same physical environmental conditions. This suggests that pigment in the coral's symbionts might be more genetically-determined than influenced by prevailing physical conditions of the reef. We further investigated the use of remote sensing reflectance (Rrs) as a tool for estimating the total pigment concentration of reef corals. Depending on the coral species, the Rrs and the total symbiont pigment concentration per coral tissue area correlation showed 79.5-98.5% confidence levels demonstrating its use as a non-invasive robust technique to estimate pigment concentration in studies of coral reef biodiversity and health.
造礁珊瑚通常含有多种色素，这主要归因于它们与光合甲藻的共生关系。这些色素的存在和浓度通常各不相同，并影响着珊瑚的光谱特征。我们通过高效液相色谱（HPLC）分析研究了七种加勒比海浅水石珊瑚的色素组成变化，以进一步明确珊瑚的鉴别方法。我们在这些珊瑚物种中总共发现了27种不同的色素，包括一些主要色素的变化产物。此外，还鉴定出了通常存在于内生藻类中的色素。主成分分析和层次聚类分析表明，珊瑚物种可根据色素组成进行区分。所有珊瑚均在相同的物理环境条件下采集。这表明，珊瑚共生体中的色素可能更多地由基因决定，而非受珊瑚礁当前物理条件的影响。我们进一步研究了利用遥感反射率（Rrs）作为估算造礁珊瑚总色素浓度的工具。根据珊瑚物种的不同，Rrs与每个珊瑚组织区域共生体总色素浓度之间的相关性显示出79.5 - 98.5%的置信水平，这表明在珊瑚礁生物多样性和健康研究中，它可作为一种非侵入性的可靠技术来估算色素浓度。
