Baseline Levels of <i>Siderastrea siderea</i> Bleaching under Normal Environmental Conditions in Little Cayman

Abstract

This study describes the health status of Siderastrea siderea in Little Cayman before, during, and after the 2015 Caribbean-wide elevated temperature anomaly. Colony color was used as a proxy for health during snorkel and scuba surveys of shallow (<2 m depth) and deep (6 -16 m depth) reefs. Baseline demographics indicated that 6% of this species were pale or blue pre-disturbance. When seawater temperatures exceeded 30.5˚C, S. siderea were early indicators of reef stress and among the first corals to bleach. Depth and site resilience did not significantly impact temperature susceptibility; however, smaller colonies (<200 cm 2 surface area) were more likely to change color than the larger size classes. Little Cayman's S. siderea were capable of surviving large-scale (>80%) bleaching: mortality was observed for only one colony. Resilience rates varied considerably: one-third of the impacted population returned to the normal brown color within two months, one-third required 3 -9 months to recover, and the fates of the remaining one-third remain to be determined. If the return to normal color is indicative of resistance to reef disturbances, S. siderea may be among the "winning" coral species following elevated temperature anomalies which are predicted to occur with increasing frequency and severity as a result of climate change.

Nearshore coral growth declining on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System

“…Siderastrea siderea corals exhibited anomalously low linear extension rates during years in which DHW ≥ 4 (and the years directly following) while P. strigosa corals did not, indicating that growth rates of S. siderea may be more susceptible to acute bleaching stress (Figure ; Tables S5 and S6). S. siderea and P. strigosa are classified as stress‐tolerant coral species (Darling, Alvarez‐Filip, Oliver, Mcclanahan, & Côté, ), but S. siderea are often among the first coral species to bleach during a thermal stress event (Banks & Foster, ; Hernández‐Delgado et al, ). While the early onset of bleaching for a stress‐tolerant S. siderea appears to be a contradiction for life history expectations, the resilience of S. siderea to bleaching events may suggest that early onset bleaching is part of an adaptive strategy for this coral (Buddemeier & Fautin, ) under elevated thermal stress and warrants further investigation.…”

Small-Scale Variability Dominates Benthic Coverage and Diversity Across the Jardines de La Reina, Cuba Coral Reef System

“…The four most abundant coral species (S. siderea, Agaricia spp., P. astreoides, and S. intersepta) have been previously reported as dominant in JR (Hernández-Fernández et al, 2011Ferrer-Rodríguez et al, 2016). S. siderea is a common species in Caribbean reefs and is tolerant to environmental stress caused by low salinity and/or high temperature (Muthiga and Szmant, 1987;Castillo et al, 2014;Banks and Foster, 2017). P. astreoides is also a tolerant species, especially to conditions of high sedimentation and eutrophication (Fabricius et al, 2005).…”

Inter-domain microbial diversity within the coral holobiontSiderastrea sidereafrom two depth habitats

“…The coral selected for this study, Siderastrea siderea , is a gonochoric coral and an abundant massive coral in the Florida reef tract ( Lirman & Fong, 2007 ). This species is considered to be among the most adaptive corals on the Caribbean reefs as it is relatively resilient to several environmental stressors ( Colella et al, 2012 ; Castillo et al, 2014 ) and typified by high recovery rates from major bleaching events ( Banks & Foster, 2017 ). Therefore, S. siderea represents a suitable species to investigate microbiome patterns between different localities on the same reef.…”