Phylum Cnidaria

Lecture 2
May 16, 2016
Professor Hofmann

Great Barrier Reef in Australia: only 7% has escaped bleaching

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/14/477963623/new-photos-show-the-rapid-pace-of-great-barrier-reef-bleaching

Coralwatch

Road map - Lecture 2

Intro to Phylum Cnidaria
Distinguishing characteristics
Body plan

Functional information
Gastrovascular cavity
Nematocysts
Symbiosis in cnidarians
Primitive nerve nets
Hydrostatic skeleton

Biodiversity

Who are they?

Phylum Cnidaria contains over 10,000 species

Anthozoans: corals & sea anemones
Scyphozoans: Jellyfishes
Hydrozoans
Cubazoans

Evolutionary relationships
Cnidarians next
split from the
animal lineage after
sponges
Most cnidarians are
marine
Most distinct change
Two embryonic cells
layers
Distinct organ
systems

The Cnidarian Lifestyle

Simple carnivores
Some swim, some dont
Predators
Very low metabolic rates
Can survive in cold and
nutrient poor waters (polar)

Antarctic jellyfish
Desmonema glaciale

All cnidarians have

A basic radial symmetry
Only 2 layers of living tissue
Epidermis and gastrodermis

A middle gelatinous layer the

mesoglea in between the 2
living layers of tissue
Tentacles surrounding the
mouth
Only a single opening to the
digestive system
Gastrovascular cavity
blind gut

Stinging Cells (containing

structures such as
nematocysts) that account for
the stinging activity that is
associated with these animals

Lions Mane Jelly

Cyanea capillata

Gastrovasuclar Cavity
Multiple purposes:
Digestion
Gas exchange (no
gills)
Circulation

A diffusion-based
system

A Few Specifics About

Cnidarian Physiology
Gastrovasuclar cavity is
region of gas exchange
and digestion
Lack a circulatory system
Gastrovascular cavity can
be highly branched in large
cnidarians

Extracellular digestion
Cells in gastroderm contain
digestive enzymes

Epithelial cells with

muscle fibers that allow
movement

The stinging cells, cnidocytes

Cells are at the end of
tentacles
Eject a nematocyst
Literally,
threadbags
Can inject a toxin into
prey

Cnidarian body wall crosssection

A. gastrovascular cavity
B. gastrodermis
C. mesoglea
D. cnidocysts
E. epidermis
(integument)

An advance in the nerves

department
Unlike sponges,
cnidarians have
nerves and muscles
First animal
(Metazoan) to have
one
Not a true nervous
system
Mesh of overlapping,
decentralized nerves
in a network

Examples of nerve nets

Hydrostatic skeletal system

Cnidarian Diversity: 4 main groups

Scyphozoans (jellyfish)
Anthozoans (corals and anemones)
Hydrozoans
Cubazoans (box jellies)

Members of Class Scyphozoa

The jellyfish or G:
cup animals
Thick mesoglea
Large, effective
swimmers
All marine

Aurelia labiata, moon jellies

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Large mesoglea in jellyfish

Jellyfish locomotion:
more complex than we thought?

Article in Current Biology explores jellyfish orientation.

http://news.discovery.com/animals/brainless-animal-turns-out-to-be-world-class-swimmer-150122.htm

Scyphozoan Life cycle

Alternation between
polyp and medusa

Class Hydrozoa
Contains the only
freshwater cnidarians
+ marine forms
Sessile forms and
colonial swimmers

Members of the Hydrozoa

Freshwater hydrozoan Hydra

Copyright 2002 Olympus Optical Co.,Ltd.

Obelia polyps

Portuguese man-of-war:
siphonophore
Often called blue
bottle in Australia

Physalia physalis

Four types of zooids

Pneumatophore the
sail
Dactylozooid
For defense
Fishing
10 meters long and
covered in
nematocysts

Gastrozooid for
feeding
Gonozooid reproduction

Velella velella

By-the-wind Sailor
Velella velella

Mass strandings on beaches in California

Members of Anthozoa
G: flower animals
Corals & sea
anemones
Corals: Reef building
organisms

What is a coral?
Microdocs, Steve Palumbi, Stanford University
http://www.stanford.edu/group/microdocs/index.html

Variable morphologies

Coral-algal symbiosis: a key species

relationship in coral reef ecosystems
Most reef-building corals contain photosynthetic algae, called
ZOOXANTHELLAE, that live in their tissues
the corals and algae have a MUTUALISTIC RELATIONSHIP:
the coral provides the algae with a protected environment and
compounds they need for photosynthesis.

Coral-zooxanthellae Symbiosis

Most reef-building corals

normally contain:
1-5 x 106 zooxanthellae/cm 2 of
live surface tissue
>1010 algal symbionts/m2

Relatively small biomass in

relationship to their ecological
effect = keystone species on
coral reefs
At right:
A coral with zooxanthellae
photographed under blue light,
which made the zooxanthellae's
chlorophyll fluoresce red
Isolated zooxanthellae from
coral tissue

Coral Bleaching: stress @ high temperatures

The loss of symbiotic zooxantheallae and/or a reduction in
photosynthetic pigment in zooxanthellae residing within corals in
termed CORAL BLEACHING
Note that the zooxanthellae give coral their color, in their absence only
the pale skeleton can been seen through the polyps transparent
tissues

STAGHORN CORAL (Acropora cervicornis)

HEALTHY

BLEACHED

Coralwatch

HEAT STRESS AND CORALS

Much like organisms in the upper intertidal, many corals are already living
near upper critical limits for temperature
This makes these corals especially vulnerable to global warming:
even small increases in temperature could trigger bleaching
sea temperatures are warmer (+0.7C) lower than at any other time
during the past 420,000 years
rates of change in global temperature over the past century are 2 to 3
orders of magnitude higher than most of the changes seen in the past
420,000 years

How do we predict these

events?

How do we assess the

likelihood of bleaching?
Degree Heating Weeks (DHWs)
Monitor when sea surface temperatures
exceed 1C above the maximum
summertime mean
DHW shows how much heat stress has
accumulated in an area over time
periods of weeks by adding up any
temperature exceeding the bleaching
threshold during that time period.

Global Sea Surface Temperature

DEGREE HEATING WEEKS

Monitoring the likelihood of bleaching
1. Measure the number of consecutive weeks corals spend at
temperatures above summer maxima reflects cumulative heat stress
2. Calculated over 12 weeks
3. 4 C-weeks significant bleaching is likely
4. 8 C-weeks cause significant bleaching and wide-spread mortality

See the live report:

http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/index.php

Degree Heating Weeks on May 14th

Resulting Bleaching Alerts

Marine biologists debate the

nature of coral bleaching
Two schools, generally
speaking:
Stress response
Adaptive Bleaching
Hypothesis (ABH)
Premise: bleaching is a
regulated mechanism that
corals use to switch out
symbionts in response to
variable environmental
conditions
High risk ecological
opportunity

Next lecture
Worms!