Post-illumination stimulation of respiration rate in the coral Porites porites

The respiration rate of the Caribbean reef coral Porites porites was shown to increase by a mean of 39% above the pre-illumination respiration rate when exposed for 3 h to light equivalent to that at 10 m depth on the reef. When exposed to a subsaturating irradiance of 140 E m^-2 s^-1, the respiration rate increased successively in a curvilinear form to 58% greater than the preillumination respiration rate after 80 min. It is suggested that this increase may be analogous to the elevation in respiration rate observed in cnidarians and other animals after feeding on particulate food and may represent energy expenditure in growth. If this elevated respiration rate is maintained over the whole of the daytime period, the current methodologies used for determining carbon and energy budgets in symbiotic cnidarians result in an underestimation of the 24 h energy expenditure.