Microbial invasion of the Caribbean by an Indo-Pacific coral zooxanthella

Pettay, D. Tye; Wham, Drew C.; Smith, Robin T.; Iglesias-Prieto, Roberto; LaJeunesse, Todd C.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1502283112

Cited by 178 publications

(203 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…Thus, the ability for corals to inherit thermal tolerance is likely to be species-specific, and highly-dependent on the dynamics of local temperature regimes. Costs may also be associated with greater thermal tolerance, for example, a thermotolerant symbiont, Symbiodinium trenchii (D1a), has been shown to reduce host mortality rates by 30% under thermal stress; however, that is accompanied by a reduction in growth rates of 50-60% (Little et al, 2004;Smith and Iglesias-Prieto, 2010;Pettay et al, 2015). Energetic trade-offs need to be considered alongside the benefit of tolerance to assess whether coral reef form and function can be maintained.…”

Section: Broad Temperature Gradientsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Future of Coral Reefs Subject to Rapid Climate Change: Lessons from Natural Extreme Environments

et al. 2018

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Global climate change and localized anthropogenic stressors are driving rapid declines in coral reef health. In vitro experiments have been fundamental in providing insight into how reef organisms will potentially respond to future climates. However, such experiments are inevitably limited in their ability to reproduce the complex interactions that govern reef systems. Studies examining coral communities that already persist under naturally-occurring extreme and marginal physicochemical conditions have therefore become increasingly popular to advance ecosystem scale predictions of future reef form and function, although no single site provides a perfect analog to future reefs. Here we review the current state of knowledge that exists on the distribution of corals in marginal and extreme environments, and geographic sites at the latitudinal extremes of reef growth, as well as a variety of shallow reef systems and reef-neighboring environments (including upwelling and CO 2 vent sites). We also conduct a synthesis of the abiotic data that have been collected at these systems, to provide the first collective assessment on the range of extreme conditions under which corals currently persist. We use the review and data synthesis to increase our understanding of the biological and ecological mechanisms that facilitate survival and success under sub-optimal physicochemical conditions. This comprehensive assessment can begin to: (i) highlight the extent of extreme abiotic scenarios under which corals can persist, (ii) explore whether there are commonalities in coral taxa able to persist in such extremes, (iii) provide evidence for key mechanisms required to support survival and/or persistence under sub-optimal environmental conditions, and (iv) evaluate the potential of current sub-optimal coral environments to act as potential refugia under changing environmental conditions. Such a collective approach is critical to better understand the future survival of corals in our changing environment. We finally outline priority areas for future research on extreme and marginal coral environments, and discuss the additional management options they may provide for corals through refuge or by providing genetic stocks of stress tolerant corals to support proactive management strategies.

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Section: Broad Temperature Gradientsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Future of Coral Reefs Subject to Rapid Climate Change: Lessons from Natural Extreme Environments

et al. 2018

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“…In the Caribbean, there is some evidence that the symbiosis is sub-optimal for some coral species as these colonies showed a lower level of calcification [16], though this may not be the case in Palau. The present study seems to indicate a lower level of thermal bleaching (as increased reflectance or loss of symbionts) in colonies with S. trenchii, compared to C3u or C40 symbionts.…”

Section: Spectral Response To Heatingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spectral Reflectance of Palauan Reef-Building Coral with Different Symbionts in Response to Elevated Temperature

et al. 2016

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Spectral reflectance patterns of corals are driven largely by the pigments of photosynthetic symbionts within the host cnidarian. The warm inshore bays and cooler offshore reefs of Palau share a variety of coral species with differing endosymbiotic dinoflagellates (genus: Symbiodinium), with the thermally tolerant Symbiodinium trenchii (S. trenchii) (= type D1a or D1-4) predominating under the elevated temperature regimes inshore, and primarily Clade C types in the cooler reefs offshore. Spectral reflectance of two species of stony coral, Cyphastrea serailia (C. serailia) and Pachyseris rugosa (P. rugosa), from both inshore and offshore locations shared multiple features both between sites and to similar global data from other studies. No clear reflectance features were evident which might serve as markers of thermally tolerant S. trenchii symbionts compared to the same species of coral with different symbionts. Reflectance from C. serailia colonies from inshore had a fluorescence peak at approximately 500 nm which was absent from offshore animals. Integrated reflectance across visible wavelengths had an inverse correlation to symbiont cell density and could be used as a relative indicator of the symbiont abundance for each type of coral. As hypothesized, coral colonies from offshore with Clade C symbionts showed a greater response to experimental heating, manifested as decreased symbiont density and increased reflectance or "bleaching" than their inshore counterparts with S. trenchii. Although no unique spectral features were found to distinguish species of symbiont, spectral differences related to the abundance of symbionts could prove useful in field and remote sensing studies.

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“…glynni) showing greater heat tolerance (Rowan, 2004). Bleaching thresholds are elevated by 1-2°C when hosting these symbionts in the Pacific (Berkelmans and van Oppen, 2006) and the Caribbean (Silverstein et al, 2015), where S. trenchii may have been recently introduced (Pettay et al, 2015). However, the tolerance of these symbionts to cold temperatures has not been previously investigated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tenacious D: Symbiodinium in clade D remain in reef corals at both high and low temperature extremes despite impairment

Silverstein

Cunning

Baker

2017

Journal of Experimental Biology

100

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Reef corals are sensitive to thermal stress, which induces coral bleaching (the loss of algal symbionts), often leading to coral mortality. However, corals hosting certain symbionts (notably some members of Symbiodinium clade D) resist bleaching when exposed to high temperatures. To determine whether these symbionts are also cold tolerant, we exposed corals hosting either Symbiodinium C3 or D1a to incremental warming (+1°C week −1 to 35°C) and cooling (−1°C week −1 to 15°C), and measured photodamage and symbiont loss. During warming to 33°C, C3 corals were photodamaged and lost >99% of symbionts, while D1a corals experienced photodamage but did not bleach. During cooling, D1a corals suffered more photodamage than C3 corals but still did not bleach, while C3 corals lost 94% of symbionts. These results indicate that photodamage does not always lead to bleaching, suggesting alternate mechanisms exist by which symbionts resist bleaching, and helping explain the persistence of D1a symbionts on recently bleached reefs, with implications for the future of these ecosystems.

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Microbial invasion of the Caribbean by an Indo-Pacific coral zooxanthella

Cited by 178 publications

References 71 publications

The Future of Coral Reefs Subject to Rapid Climate Change: Lessons from Natural Extreme Environments

The Future of Coral Reefs Subject to Rapid Climate Change: Lessons from Natural Extreme Environments

Spectral Reflectance of Palauan Reef-Building Coral with Different Symbionts in Response to Elevated Temperature

Tenacious D: Symbiodinium in clade D remain in reef corals at both high and low temperature extremes despite impairment

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