The Effect of External Nutrient Resources on the Optical Properties and Photosynthetic Efficiency of Stylophora pistillata

Enrichment of the hermatypic Red Sea coral Stylophora pistillata with dissolved inorganic nitrogen, inorganic nitrogen + phosphorus, and feed­ing on Artemia, all led to increases in areal pigmentation in comparison with control colonies. These increases, unlike photoadaptive ones, resulted from growth in cell numbers ranging from × 2.75 in the Artemia-fed to × 4.85 in the N + P-enriched corals. The treated corals absorbed 51-85% of incident light, whereas the controls absorbed only 33%. Areal photosynthesis increased with treatment, although to a lesser degree than absorptivity. This difference resulted in reduced photosynthetic effici­encies in the treated colonies. Photosynthetic rates, calculated on a percell basis, were inversely correlated with algal densities, indicating poss­ible competition among the algae for CO2.