Corals are notoriously sensitive to elevated temperatures and this sensitivity has come to frame debates regarding the responsiveness of reef systems to global climate change. This project will explore aspects of the dynamics of the coral vascular system, an inter-connecting system of polyps and stolons or oscillators. Buss hypothesizes that coral bleaching, and ultimately mortality, results from the chaotic change in the size of the vascular system. To explore this possibility, Buss plans to alter the velocity of gastrovascular flow through stolons experimentally and to monitor radial diameter of stolons using sophisticated video and image analysis. Then, to visualize the chaotic behavior of the vascular system, a spatial grid of coupled oscillators will be developed. The model should predict the behavior dynamics of corals based on perturbation studies of living material and lead to a better understanding why corals adopt specific structural forms.
