The Amazing Sex Lives of Coral: Girls To Boys, And Then Back Again


	The Amazing Sex Lives of Coral: Girls To Boys, And Then Back Again

Silkweaver

2-24-2009 7:00 PM

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tags:

biology, corals, sex, climate change

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/6004111d-9d91-4bcf-9c13-dfd6fbe8a6e8/67FAB04E-1753-4E77-BF05-989E9325DD96/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/02/23/the-amazing-sex-lives-of-coral-girls-to-boys-and-then-back-again/" href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/02/23/the-amazing-sex-lives-of-coral-girls-to-boys-and-then-back-again/" style="font-size: 11px;">blogs.discovermagazine.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/02/23/the-amazing-sex-lives-of-coral-girls-to-boys-and-then-back-again/"><div align="center"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/blogs.discovermagazine.com/img/1A04385B-7B7B-45D0-8E8F-688F96DBB4A9" alt="coral.jpg" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/02/23/the-amazing-sex-lives-of-coral-girls-to-boys-and-then-back-again/"><A href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/4511986/Worlds-youngest-sex-change%20%20%20-operation.html">Humans</A> might be the only species that actually choose to go under the knife to have their sex changed. But sometimes gender switches are a semi-regular occurrence in other species. In Colorado, <A href="http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2006/dec/10/fish-sex-change-investigatedx1/?printer=1/">fish are changing sex</A> at rapid rates, reportedly due to the estrogen dribbling into Boulder’s Wastewater that’s concentrated enough to turn males into females.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/02/23/the-amazing-sex-lives-of-coral-girls-to-boys-and-then-back-again/">Now, we can add sea coral to the list of organisms that are changing sex as a response to environmental factors: Israeli scientists report that <A href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090219202833.htm">Japanese corals change their sex</A> to survive the pressures of climate change.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/02/23/the-amazing-sex-lives-of-coral-girls-to-boys-and-then-back-again/">Zoologist Yossi Loya from Tel Aviv University discovered that female mushroom coral becomes male when the ocean floor gets too hot.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/02/23/the-amazing-sex-lives-of-coral-girls-to-boys-and-then-back-again/">The reason for this abrupt switch is because it takes more energy to be female, making male coral more adaptable to the heat.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/02/23/the-amazing-sex-lives-of-coral-girls-to-boys-and-then-back-again/">By having the ability to shift to a mostly male population, corals can <A href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090219202833.htm">maximize their reproductive effort</A></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/67FAB04E-1753-4E77-BF05-989E9325DD96/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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