Temperature and symbiosis affect lesion recovery in experimentally wounded, facultatively symbiotic temperate corals

The impact of autotrophic versus heterotrophic nutritional pathways on colony health and wound recovery in corals

“…This study suggests that autotrophy plays an important role in wound recovery and that there may be an important interplay and feedback (both positive and negative) between autotrophy and heterotrophy. As previously found in A. poculata , symbiotic state had a significant role on healing initiation and success as well as proportional surface area recovery to wounds (Burmester et al, ; DeFilippo et al, ). However, symbiont state alone was not enough to maximize healing potential.…”

“…The magnification and angle of the photograph were kept constant for each colony across all photographs. These photographs were used to assess wound recovery using two metrics (Burmester et al, ). First, each colony was assigned to one of four recovery stages based on a qualitative assessment of the wound site at 60 days post‐wounding: (a) “incomplete occlusion”—the wound remains open or increases in surface area, with bare skeleton still exposed; (b) “full occlusion”—undifferentiated tissue covers a portion or the entirety of the wound site; (c) “tentacle eruption”—tentacle nubs, still incapable of contraction and prey capture, have formed; and (d) “full recovery”—a fully functional polyp capable of feeding has formed at the wound site.…”

“…Polyp color was used as a proxy for chlorophyll density as previously described (Dimond & Carrington, ; Burmester et al, ). Colonies were photographed on day 0 and day 60 against red‐green‐blue (RGB) color standards.…”

“…Photosynthetic efficiency ( F v / F m ) was measured for three randomly selected polyps in each colony in weeks 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 using a Walz Junior‐PAM pulse‐amplitude modulated fluorescence meter as described in DeFilippo, Burmester, Kaufman, and Rotjan () and Burmester et al (). Briefly, after a thirty‐minute acclimation to darkness, minimal fluorescence ( F 0 ) was measured by exposing polyps to 6 s of far‐red illumination while dark adapted; subsequently, maximal fluorescence ( F m ) was determined after exposing polyps to a 0.6 s saturating pulse of 10,000 μmol m −2 s −1 .…”

“…The magnification and angle of the photograph were kept constant for each colony across all photographs. These photographs were used to assess wound recovery using two metrics (Burmester et al, 2017). First,…”