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Assessing the role of historical temperature regime and algal symbionts on the heat tolerance of coral juveniles
- Source :
- Biology Open, Biology Open, Vol 9, Iss 1 (2020)
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- The Company of Biologists Ltd, 2020.
-
Abstract
- The rate of coral reef degradation from climate change is accelerating and, as a consequence, a number of interventions to increase coral resilience and accelerate recovery are under consideration. Acropora spathulata coral colonies that survived mass bleaching in 2016 and 2017 were sourced from a bleaching-impacted and warmer northern reef on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). These individuals were reproductively crossed with colonies collected from a recently bleached but historically cooler central GBR reef to produce pure and crossbred offspring groups (warm–warm, warm–cool and cool–warm). We tested whether corals from the warmer reef produced more thermally tolerant hybrid and purebred offspring compared with crosses produced with colonies sourced from the cooler reef and whether different symbiont taxa affect heat tolerance. Juveniles were infected with Symbiodinium tridacnidorum, Cladocopium goreaui and Durusdinium trenchii and survival, bleaching and growth were assessed at 27.5°C and 31°C. The contribution of host genetic background and symbiont identity varied across fitness traits. Offspring with either both or one parent from the northern population exhibited a 13- to 26-fold increase in survival odds relative to all other treatments where survival probability was significantly influenced by familial cross identity at 31°C but not 27.5°C (Kaplan–Meier P=0.001 versus 0.2). If in symbiosis with D. trenchii, a warm sire and cool dam provided the best odds of juvenile survival. Bleaching was predominantly driven by Symbiodiniaceae treatment, where juveniles hosting D. trenchii bleached significantly less than the other treatments at 31°C. The greatest overall fold-benefits in growth and survival at 31°C occurred in having at least one warm dam and in symbiosis with D. trenchii. Juveniles associated with D. trenchii grew the most at 31°C, but at 27.5°C, growth was fastest in juveniles associated with C. goreaui. In conclusion, selective breeding with warmer GBR corals in combination with algal symbiont manipulation can assist in increasing thermal tolerance on cooler but warming reefs. Such interventions have the potential to improve coral fitness in warming oceans. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.<br />Summary: Survival of coral juveniles under heat stress can be significantly improved by breeding corals from historically warmer reefs with those from cooler reefs, and the provisioning with heat tolerant symbionts.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Thermotolerance
Hot Temperature
QH301-705.5
Coral
Science
Acclimatization
Climate Change
Oceans and Seas
Population
01 natural sciences
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Heat tolerance
03 medical and health sciences
Symbiodinium
Symbiodiniaceae
Acropora
Juvenile
Animals
Biology (General)
education
Symbiosis
Reef
030304 developmental biology
0303 health sciences
education.field_of_study
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
biology
Host (biology)
Ecology
010604 marine biology & hydrobiology
fungi
Temperature
Coral reef
biochemical phenomena, metabolism, and nutrition
biology.organism_classification
Anthozoa
Selective breeding
Dinoflagellida
population characteristics
Bleaching
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
geographic locations
Research Article
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20466390
- Volume :
- 9
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Biology Open
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....0d7925137db2301a0205944375d53c4e