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National Geographic
, las avispas de mar se vuelven ms mortferas con la edad. Las jvenes, que
cazan camarones, tienen veneno tan slo en el 5% de sus clulas urticantes,
mientras que las adultas lo tienenen el 50%, lo que les permite cazar presas
ms grandes
Reef corals sclerochronology was born at the beginning of the 1970s, when it
was discovered that the skeletons of some massive scleractinian corals display
an annual growth pattern revealed in Xradiographs of skeletal slices removed
from a growth axis as annual pairs of high and low density bands. Since highresolution proxy climate records are poorly represented in tropical oceans, such
banding has provided invaluable information about coral skeletal growth,
growth rates and the environmental conditions under which growth took place
in these areas. Annual growth characteristics that can be recovered from the
density-banding pattern (g cm-3), include annual extension rate (cm yr-1) and
annual calcification rate (g cm-2 yr-1).
Porites and Montastraea coral genera are the most commonly used in
sclerochronological studies to make environmental reconstructions and
predictions. During the 90s a lot of studies using species from Porites genera
were performed to understand how corals growth, register information and
wich are the major environmental controls of their growth. It was assumed that
all coral species had the same strategies. Since 2000, Im dedicated to probe
that Montastraea spp. Does not present the same growth strategie thanPorites,
and that it registers information and responds to environmental controls in
different ways. From my work, now we know thatMontastraea species present a
response known as stretching modulation of skeletal growth, and that they
invest calcification resources to build denser skeletons,
meanwhile Porites species do not present stretching and invest calcification
resources for faster grow up. This information is a tool to have more precise
environmental reconstructions and predictions usingMontastraea species. The
same way, with a project founded by CONACYT we have discovered a thermal
stress signature in the density-banding pattern of Montastraea caused by
ocean warming. We know now that global climate change effects will be
differential depending on coral species. Those species that invest calcification
resources on denser skeletons will suffer higher environmental erosion, and
those that growth faster will have smaller skeletons than they have now. Also,
product of my work, we know that the two growth strategies allow different
coral species to construct denser skeletons in reefs where microborers activity
is higher it seems probable that patterns of microbioerosion exert a selective
influence on growth strategies, enclosing repercussions for the evolution,
diversity, distribution and abundance of reef corals.