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New species of azooxanthellate corals were found from the waters of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for the first time from Indian waters.
About Azooxanthellate corals
- Azooxanthellate corals are a group of corals that do not contain zooxanthellae and derive nourishment not from the sun but from capturing different forms of planktons.
Photo Credit: The Hindu - These groups of corals are deep-sea representatives with the majority of species being reported from depths between 200 metres and 1,000 metres.
- Their occurrences are also reported from shallow coastal waters unlike zooxanthellate corals that are restricted to shallow waters.
- All the four groups of corals are from the same family, Flabellidae.
- Truncatoflabellum crassum (Milne Edwards and Haime, 1848), T. incrustatum ( Cairns, 1989), T. aculeatum (Milne Edwards and Haime, 1848), and T. irregulare (Semper, 1872) under the family Flabellidae were previously found in Japan, the Philippines and Australian waters
- T. crassum was reported with the range of Indo-West Pacific distribution.
- Azooxanthellate corals are a group of hard corals and the four new species recorded are not only solitary but have a highly compressed skeletal structure.
- Most studies of hard corals in India have been concentrated on reef-building corals while much is not known about non-reef-building corals. These new species enhance our knowledge about non-reef-building solitary corals.
- Coral reefs are one of the most productive, sustainable, and pristine ecosystems of the world’s oceans, especially in shallow coastal waters.
- Hard corals are the prime and intrinsic part of the coral reef ecosystem.
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