Can you provide a citation so I'm sure I'm reading the correct information you're referring to. I actually recall reading a publication which examined over 400 species of coral i believe and found that only 20 something percent could host more than one clade simultaneously.totally understandable. This is why I
sorry I pressed post by accident.
Totally understandable idea. I have no idea is the acros will take to a new clade - this is the basis of my experiment. However, repopulation has been proven in a couple experiments. A paper done by Kinzie et al. 2001 (which I mentioned above) proved that a species of anemone repopulated after being bleached. However, the zooxanthellae they used is what is typically found in that particular anemone. If you are interested I defiantly recommend reading the paper, its what im basing most of my experiment off. Its quick and relatively easy to understand.
To counter this all, its been found that there are a multitude of different clades of zooxanthellae per coral host. SO, it could be said that each coral have every type, A-D, in their body.
Lastly, my experiment is also based off a hypothesis that is heavily debated in the reef science community. Its called the "Adaptive Bleaching Hypothesis". Bascially stating that "Bleaching provides an opportunity for the host to be repopulated with a different type of partner; frequent stress tends to favor a stress-resistant combination." Go and read W. Buddemeier and Daphne G. F paper on it who first coined the hypothesis in the 80's - its very insightful as to why corals bleach in the first place.