Search Results (5)

Corals are globally important calcifiers that exhibit complex responses to anthropogenic warming and acidification. Although coral calcification is supported by high seawater pH, photosynthesis by the algal symbionts of zooxanthellate corals can be promoted by elevated pCO₂. To investigate the mechanisms underlying corals’ complex responses to global change, three species of tropical zooxanthellate corals (Stylophora pistillata, Pocillopora damicornis, and Seriatopora hystrix) and one species of asymbiotic cold-water coral (Desmophyllum pertusum, syn. Lophelia pertusa) were cultured under a range of ocean acidification and warming scenarios. Under control temperatures, all tropical species exhibited increased calcification rates in response to increasing pCO₂. However, the tropical species’ response to increasing pCO₂ flattened when they lost symbionts (i.e., bleached) under the high-temperature treatments—suggesting that the loss of symbionts neutralized the benefit of increased pCO₂ on calcification rate. Notably, the cold-water species that lacks symbionts exhibited a negative calcification response to increasing pCO₂, although this negative response was partially ameliorated under elevated temperature. All four species elevated their calcifying fluid pH relative to seawater pH under all pCO₂ treatments, and the magnitude of this offset (Δ[H⁺]) increased with increasing pCO₂. Furthermore, calcifying fluid pH decreased along with symbiont abundance under thermal stress for the one species in which calcifying fluid pH was measured under both temperature treatments. This observation suggests a mechanistic link between photosymbiont loss (‘bleaching’) and impairment of zooxanthellate corals’ ability to elevate calcifying fluid pH in support of calcification under heat stress. This study supports the assertion that thermally induced loss of photosymbionts impairs tropical zooxanthellate corals’ ability to cope with CO₂-induced ocean acidification. Full article

The global continued decline in coral reefs is intensifying the need to understand the response of corals to local environmental stressors. Coral-associated bacterial communities have been suggested to have a swift response to environmental pollutants. This study aims to determine the variation in the bacterial communities associated with the mucus of two coral species, Pocillopora damicornis (Linnaeus, 1758) and Stylophora pistillata (Esper, 1792), and the coral-surrounding seawater from three areas exposed to contamination at the Jordanian coast of the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea), and also explores the antibacterial activity of these bacteria. Corals were collected from three contaminated zones along the coast, and the bacteria were quantified and identified by conventional morphological and biochemical tests, as well as 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The average number of bacteria significantly varied among the coral mucus from the sampling zones and between the coral mucus and the surrounding seawater. The P. damicornis mucus-associated bacterial community was dominated by members of the classes Gammaproteobacteria, Cytophagia, and Actinomycetia, while the mucus of S. pistillata represented higher bacterial diversity, with the dominance of the bacterial classes Gammaproteobacteria, Actinomycetia, Alphaproteobacteria, and Bacilli. The effects of local anthropogenic impacts on coral mucus bacterial communities were represented in the increased abundance of bacterial species related to coral diseases. Furthermore, the results demonstrated the existence of bacterial isolates with antibacterial activity that possibly acted as a first line of defense to protect and maintain the coral host against pathogens. Indeed, the dynamics of coral-associated microbial communities highlight the importance of holistic studies that focus on microbial interactions across the coral reef ecosystem. Full article

Evidence has shown that individually feeding or reduced light can mitigate the negative effects of elevated temperature on coral physiology. We aimed to evaluate if simultaneous low light and feeding would mitigate, minimize, or exacerbate negative effects of elevated temperature on coral physiology and carbon budgets. Pocillopora damicornis, Stylophora pistillata, and Turbinaria reniformis were grown for 28 days under a fully factorial experiment including two seawater temperatures (ambient temperature of 25 °C, elevated temperature of 30 °C), two light levels (high light of 300 μmol photons m⁻² s⁻¹, low light of 150 μmol photons m⁻² s⁻¹), and either fed (Artemia nauplii) or unfed. Coral physiology was significantly affected by temperature in all species, but the way in which low light and feeding altered their physiological responses was species-specific. All three species photo-acclimated to low light by increasing chlorophyll a. Pocillopora damicornis required feeding to meet metabolic demand irrespective of temperature but was unable to maintain calcification under low light when fed. In T. reniformis, low light mitigated the negative effect of elevated temperature on total lipids, while feeding mitigated the negative effects of elevated temperature on metabolic demand. In S. pistillata, low light compounded the negative effects of elevated temperature on metabolic demand, while feeding minimized this negative effect but was not sufficient to provide 100% metabolic demand. Overall, low light and feeding did not act synergistically, nor additively, to mitigate the negative effects of elevated temperature on P. damicornis, S. pistillata, or T. reniformis. However, feeding alone was critical to the maintenance of metabolic demand at elevated temperature, suggesting that sufficient supply of heterotrophic food sources is likely essential for corals during thermal stress (bleaching) events. Full article

Associations between habitat-forming, branching scleractinian corals and damselfish have critical implications for the function and trophic dynamics of coral reef ecosystems. This study quantifies how different characteristics of reef habitat, and of coral morphology, determine whether fish occupy a coral colony. In situ surveys of aggregative damselfish–coral associations were conducted at 51 different sites distributed among 22 reefs spread along >1700 km of the Great Barrier Reef, to quantify interaction frequency over a large spatial scale. The prevalence of fish–coral associations between five damselfish (Chromis viridis, Dascyllus aruanus, Dascyllus reticulatus, Pomacentrus amboinensis and Pomacentrus moluccensis) and five coral species (Acropora spathulata, Acropora intermedia, Pocillopora damicornis, Seriatopora hystrix, and Stylophora pistillata) averaged ~30% across all corals, but ranged from <1% to 93% of small branching corals occupied at each site, depending on reef exposure levels and habitat. Surprisingly, coral cover was not correlated with coral occupancy, or total biomass of damselfish. Instead, the biomass of damselfish was two-fold greater on sheltered sites compared with exposed sites. Reef habitat type strongly governed these interactions with reef slope/base (25%) and shallow sand-patch habitats (38%) hosting a majority of aggregative damselfish-branching coral associations compared to reef flat (10%), crest (16%), and wall habitats (11%). Among the focal coral species, Seriatopora hystrix hosted the highest damselfish biomass (12.45 g per occupied colony) and Acropora intermedia the least (6.87 g per occupied colony). Analyses of local coral colony traits indicated that multiple factors governed colony usage, including spacing between colonies on the benthos, colony position, and colony branching patterns. Nevertheless, the morphological and habitat characteristics that determine whether or not a colony is occupied by fish varied among coral species. These findings illuminate the realized niche of one of the most important and abundant reef fish families and provide a context for understanding how fish–coral interactions influence coral population and community level processes. Full article

While the early acquisition of Symbiodiniaceae algae into coral host tissues has been extensively studied, the dynamics of the migration of algal cells into rapidly expanding coral tissues still lacks a systematic study. This work examined two Red Sea branching coral species, Pocillopora damicornis and Stylophora pistillata, as they were growing and expanding their tissue laterally on glass slides (January–June, 2014; 450 assays; five colonies/species). We measured lateral tissue expansion rates and intratissue dinoflagellate migration rates. Tissue growth rates significantly differed between the two species (with Stylophora faster than Pocillopora), but not between genotypes within a species. Using a “flow-through coral chamber” under the microscope, the migration of dinoflagellates towards the peripheral edges of the expanding coral tissue was quantified. On a five-day timescale, the density of the endosymbiotic dinoflagellate cells, presenting within a 90 µm region of expanding coral tissue (outer edge), increased by a factor of 23.6 for Pocillopora (from 1.2 × 10⁴ cells cm⁻² to 2.4 × 10⁵ cells cm⁻²) and by a factor of 6.8 for Stylophora (from 3.6 × 10⁴ cells cm⁻² to 2.4 × 10⁵ cells cm⁻²). The infection rates were fast (5.2 × 10⁴ and 4.1 × 10⁴ algal cells day-1 cm⁻², respectively), further providing evidence of an as yet unknown pathway of algal movement within coral host tissues. Full article