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Rising temperatures and extreme climate events are propelling tropical species into temperate marine ecosystems, but not all species can persist. Here, we used the heatwave-driven expatriation of tropical Black Rabbitfish (Siganus fuscescens) to the temperate environments of Western Australia to assess the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that may entail their persistence. Population genomic assays for this rabbitfish indicated little genetic differentiation between tropical residents and vagrants to temperate environments due to high migration rates, which were likely enhanced by the marine heatwave. DNA metabarcoding revealed a diverse diet for this species based on phytoplankton and algae, as well as an ability to feed on regional resources, including kelp. Irrespective of future climate scenarios, these macroalgae-consuming vagrants may self-recruit in temperate environments and further expand their geographic range by the year 2100. This expansion may compromise the health of the kelp forests that form Australia’s Great Southern Reef. Overall, our study demonstrates that projected favourable climate conditions, continued large-scale genetic connectivity between populations, and diet versatility are key for tropical range-shifting fish to establish in temperate ecosystems., Laura Gajdzik et al. used population genomics, dietary DNA metabarcoding, and climate models to understand the influence of the 2010/2011 marine heatwave on the migration of rabbitfish from tropical environments into temperate environments in Western Australia. Their results reveal (i) little genetic differentiation and high migration rates between tropical residents and temperate vagrants, (ii) an overall diverse diet (including phytoplankton, local and widespread algae, and kelp), and (iii) projected suitable climate conditions for vagrants to establish in temperate marine waters.

Nutrients become a death knell 5 for corals as the ocean warms., With predictions that mass coral bleaching will occur annually within this century, conservation efforts must focus their limited resources based on an accurate understanding of the drivers of bleaching. Here, we provide spatial and temporal evidence that excess nutrients exacerbate the detrimental effects of heat stress to spark mass coral bleaching in the Red Sea. Exploiting this region’s unique oceanographic regime, where nutrients and heat stress vary independently, we demonstrate that the world’s third largest coral reef system historically suffered from severe mass bleaching only when exposed to both unusually high temperature and nutrients. Incorporating nutrient-supplying ocean currents and their variability into coral bleaching forecasts will be critical for effectively guiding efforts to safeguard the reefs most likely to persist in the Anthropocene.

Crustose coralline algae play a crucial role in the building of reefs in the photic zones of nearshore ecosystems globally, and are highly susceptible to ocean acidification1–3. Nevertheless, the extent to which ecologically important crustose coralline algae can gain tolerance to ocean acidification over multiple generations of exposure is unknown. We show that, while calcification of juvenile crustose coralline algae is initially highly sensitive to ocean acidification, after six generations of exposure the effects of ocean acidification disappear. A reciprocal transplant experiment conducted on the seventh generation, where half of all replicates were interchanged across treatments, confirmed that they had acquired tolerance to low pH and not simply to laboratory conditions. Neither exposure to greater pH variability, nor chemical conditions within the micro-scale calcifying fluid internally, appeared to play a role in fostering this capacity. Our results demonstrate that reef-accreting taxa can gain tolerance to ocean acidification over multiple generations of exposure, suggesting that some of these cosmopolitan species could maintain their critical ecological role in reef formation. Crustose coralline algae help build coral reef structures through calcification, a process threatened under ocean acidification. Juvenile algae were highly sensitive on initial exposure to ocean acidification, but continued exposure over six generations showed a gain of tolerance.

This study investigates the impact of extreme heat wave events on long‐lived massive corals (Porites spp.) from the central Saudi Arabian Red Sea using trace element (Sr/Ca, Li/Mg, Mg/Ca, U/Ca, B/Ca, and Li/Ca) records preserved in the coral skeleton for the period between 1992 and 2012. Prior to 1998, the trace element records show strong correlations with sea surface temperature. However, during the prolonged high temperature phase associated with the 1998 El Niño event, the seasonal trace element signals were disrupted, which also coincided with a reduction in extension rates. This disruption in normally highly correlated seasonal trace element ratios‐sea surface temperature relationships was unusually long, lasting for approximately 2 years in the inner‐shelf reef site and nearly 4 years in the outer‐shelf reef site. Although the seasonal signal of trace element ratios in both cores eventually stabilized, for the inner‐shelf core the amplitude and absolute values in most trace element ratios remained significantly different compared to pre‐1998 levels. This suggests that prolonged thermal stress can induce subtle but potentially long‐lasting physiological changes that affect the elemental composition of the coral's calcifying fluid. The lack of indication of stress in the core records during later bleaching events (2003, 2005, and 2010) suggests that some of these physiological changes could have induced increased thermal tolerance, particularly for inner‐shelf corals, lending support to the capacity for corals to acclimatize.Plain Language SummaryThe future of coral reefs is jeopardized by global warming, particularly by marine heat waves and mass bleaching events, as evidenced by the 2016 and 2017 events. In this study the geochemical composition of the skeleton of two long‐lived massive corals from the Red Sea was used to evaluate possible long‐term acclimatization or changes in sensitivity to thermal stress. We detected a clear disturbance in the biomineralization process of the two corals following the 1998 bleaching event. However, posterior thermal stress events of similar magnitude were not registered in the skeletal growth or geochemical signature of the same corals hinting toward a possible long‐term acclimatization following the exposure to the 1998 event. published

Reef-building corals typically live close to the upper limits of their thermal tolerance and even small increases in summer water temperatures can lead to bleaching and mortality. Projections of coral reef futures based on forecasts of ocean temperatures indicate that by the end of this century, corals will experience their current thermal thresholds annually, which would lead to the widespread devastation of coral reef ecosystems. Here, we use skeletal cores of long-lived Porites corals collected from 14 reefs across the northern Great Barrier Reef, the Coral Sea, and New Caledonia to evaluate changes in their sensitivity to heat stress since 1815. High-density ‘stress bands’—indicative of past bleaching—first appear during a strong pre-industrial El Niño event in 1877 but become significantly more frequent in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in accordance with rising temperatures from anthropogenic global warming. However, the proportion of cores with stress bands declines following successive bleaching events in the twenty-first century despite increasing exposure to heat stress. Our findings demonstrate an increase in the thermal tolerance of reef-building corals and offer a glimmer of hope that at least some coral species can acclimatize fast enough to keep pace with global warming.

Ocean acidification poses a serious threat to marine calcifying organisms, yet experimental and field studies have found highly diverse responses among species and environments. Our understanding of the underlying drivers of differential responses to ocean acidification is currently limited by difficulties in directly observing and quantifying the mechanisms of bio‐calcification. Here, we present Raman spectroscopy techniques for characterizing the skeletal mineralogy and calcifying fluid chemistry of marine calcifying organisms such as corals, coralline algae, foraminifera, and fish (carbonate otoliths). First, our in vivo Raman technique is the ideal tool for investigating non‐classical mineralization pathways. This includes calcification by amorphous particle attachment, which has recently been controversially suggested as a mechanism by which corals resist the negative effects of ocean acidification. Second, high‐resolution ex vivo Raman mapping reveals complex banding structures in the mineralogy of marine calcifiers, and provides a tool to quantify calcification responses to environmental variability on various timescales from days to years. We describe the new insights into marine bio‐calcification that our techniques have already uncovered, and we consider the wide range of questions regarding calcifier responses to global change that can now be proposed and addressed with these new Raman spectroscopy tools., Newly developed in vivo and high‐resolution Raman spectroscopy analyses of marine calcifying organisms enable characterization of their mineralogy and calcification mechanisms. Insights from these new Raman spectroscopy tools are helping us understand the sensitivity of these important organisms to ocean warming and acidification.

Natural variability in pH in the diffusive boundary layer (DBL), the discrete layer of seawater between bulk seawater and the outer surface of organisms, could be an important factor determining the response of corals and coralline algae to ocean acidification (OA). Here, two corals with different morphologies and one coralline alga were maintained under two different regimes of flow velocities, pH, and light intensities in a 12 flumes experimental system for a period of 27 weeks. We used a combination of geochemical proxies, physiological and micro-probe measurements to assess how these treatments affected the conditions in the DBL and the response of organisms to OA. Overall, low flow velocity did not ameliorate the negative effect of low pH and therefore did not provide a refugia from OA. Flow velocity had species-specific effects with positive effects on calcification for two species. pH in the calcifying fluid (pHcf) was reduced by low flow in both corals at low light only. pHcf was significantly impacted by pH in the DBL for the two species capable of significantly modifying pH in the DBL. The dissolved inorganic carbon in the calcifying fluid (DICcf) was highest under low pH for the corals and low flow for the coralline, while the saturation state in the calcifying fluid and its proxy (FWHM) were generally not affected by the treatments. This study therefore demonstrates that the effects of OA will manifest most severely in a combination of lower light and lower flow habitats for sub-tropical coralline algae. These effects will also be greatest in lower flow habitats for some corals. Together with existing literature, these findings reinforce that the effects of OA are highly context dependent, and will differ greatly between habitats, and depending on species composition.

Ocean acidification threatens the persistence of biogenic calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) production on coral reefs. However, some coral genera show resistance to declines in seawater pH, potentially achieved by modulating the chemistry of the fluid where calcification occurs. We use two novel geochemical techniques based on boron systematics and Raman spectroscopy, which together provide the first constraints on the sensitivity of coral calcifying fluid calcium concentrations ( ) to changing seawater pH. In response to simulated end-of-century pH conditions, Pocillopora damicornis increased to as much as 25% above that of seawater and maintained constant calcification rates. Conversely, Acropora youngei displayed less control over , and its calcification rates strongly declined at lower seawater pH. Although the role of in driving calcification has often been neglected, increasing may be a key mechanism enabling more resistant corals to cope with ocean acidification and continue to build CaCO 3 skeletons in a high-CO 2 world.

Coral reef community responses vary but bioerosion increases under natural ocean acidification., Ocean acidification threatens the survival of coral reef ecosystems worldwide. The negative effects of ocean acidification observed in many laboratory experiments have been seen in studies of naturally low-pH reefs, with little evidence to date for adaptation. Recently, we reported initial data suggesting that low-pH coral communities of the Palau Rock Islands appear healthy despite the extreme conditions in which they live. Here, we build on that observation with a comprehensive statistical analysis of benthic communities across Palau’s natural acidification gradient. Our analysis revealed a shift in coral community composition but no impact of acidification on coral richness, coralline algae abundance, macroalgae cover, coral calcification, or skeletal density. However, coral bioerosion increased 11-fold as pH decreased from the barrier reefs to the Rock Island bays. Indeed, a comparison of the naturally low-pH coral reef systems studied so far revealed increased bioerosion to be the only consistent feature among them, as responses varied across other indices of ecosystem health. Our results imply that whereas community responses may vary, escalation of coral reef bioerosion and acceleration of a shift from net accreting to net eroding reef structures will likely be a global signature of ocean acidification.

International audience; In preparing calcium carbonate samples for the measurement of various geochemical proxies, it is often necessary to remove contaminating phases while leaving the phase of interest altered as little as possible. Here we evaluate the effects of some common cleaning protocols (rinsing (H2O), bleach (~ 3% NaOCl), hydrogen peroxide (30%), sodium hydroxide (0.006–0.1 M NaOH), and acid leaching (0.05 N HNO3)) on the elemental (Li, B, Na, Mg, Sr, Ba, Pb, and U) and boron isotope composition of both biogenic and synthetic calcium carbonates formed in marine environments.In untreated samples, the presence of elevated concentrations of Na and Mg, the most abundant cations in seawater, can be reduced with minimal cleaning (e.g. rinsing). Cleaning protocols that cause partial dissolution are problematic, especially for samples that are compositionally heterogeneous because the remaining sample may be biased towards particular phases with distinctive elemental or isotopic compositions. We show that the use of either acid or unbuffered hydrogen peroxide can lead to partial dissolution which was associated with an increase in the U/Ca ratio of the remaining sample. Bleaching or rinsing with water did not result in significant sample dissolution, suggesting that these cleaning techniques may be safely used on heterogeneous samples. Cleaning treatments, other than those resulting in significant dissolution of heterogeneous samples, had no significant effect on δ11B, suggesting that boron isotopes are generally robust to the effects of sample pre-treatment.