High phosphate uptake requirements of the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata
Claire Godinot, Renaud Grover, Denis Allemand, Christine Ferrier-Pagès
The Journal of Experimental Biology 2011 214: 2749-2754; doi: 10.1242/jeb.054239
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/214/16/2749
Also poorly understood in the nutrient balance is phosphate’s role.
This sheds light on why zero is not the goal.
Addition of ammonium or nitrate (up to 6.0 μmol l–1) did not enhance saturated phosphate uptake rates, thus indicating that corals, or their symbiotic algae, were not, or not sufficiently, nitrogen limited to modify their phosphate needs. Conversely, the saturated uptake rate of ammonium increased by 2.5-fold in the presence of 3.0 μmol l–1 of phosphate […] Finally, the rate of phosphate uptake decreased with particulate feeding of the host (organic phosphate source).
Reef Success 