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. 2013 Apr 22;8(4):e61492. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061492

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© 2013 Marcelino et al

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.

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A – Visual demonstration of differences in light transport shown for three taxa as described in [10] by focusing a laser on (a) highly-absorbing black surface and on skeletons of (b) Leptastrea transversa, (c) Leptoria phrygia, and (d) Seriatopora caliendrum. Microscopic light-scattering properties of skeletons were measured using LEBS with a white light source. B – Schematic representation of the redistribution of light between sun-exposed versus shaded areas. Differences in light transport are shown for corals with (a) very high skeleton and a (b) low skeleton. Skeletons capable of longer light transport (i.e. longer or low ) are able to illuminate otherwise shaded areas in the colony and this increased redistribution between sun-exposed versus shaded areas of a colony may further amplify the light available to the algae: (I) downwelling light, (II) diffuse reflectance, (III) photon path (arrows) and sub-micron scatters (black dots), (IV) diffuse reflectance illuminating a shaded algal cell in the coral tissue: the skeleton serves as a secondary light source [9].

Inline graphic — A – Visual demonstration of differences in light transport shown for three taxa as described in [10] by focusing a laser on (a) highly-absorbing black surface and on skeletons of (b) Leptastrea transversa, (c) Leptoria phrygia, and (d) Seriatopora caliendrum. Microscopic light-scattering properties of skeletons were measured using LEBS with a white light source. B – Schematic representation of the redistribution of light between sun-exposed versus shaded areas. Differences in light transport are shown for corals with (a) very high skeleton and a (b) low skeleton. Skeletons capable of longer light transport (i.e. longer or low ) are able to illuminate otherwise shaded areas in the colony and this increased redistribution between sun-exposed versus shaded areas of a colony may further amplify the light available to the algae: (I) downwelling light, (II) diffuse reflectance, (III) photon path (arrows) and sub-micron scatters (black dots), (IV) diffuse reflectance illuminating a shaded algal cell in the coral tissue: the skeleton serves as a secondary light source [9].