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Klepac CN, Petrik CG, Karabelas E, Owens J, Hall ER, Muller EM. Assessing acute thermal assays as a rapid screening tool for coral restoration. Sci Rep 2024; 14:1898. [PMID: 38253660 PMCID: PMC10803358 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-51944-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2023] [Accepted: 01/11/2024] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Escalating environmental threats to coral reefs coincides with global advancements in coral restoration programs. To improve long-term efficacy, practitioners must consider incorporating genotypes resilient to ocean warming and disease while maintaining genetic diversity. Identifying such genotypes typically occurs under long-term exposures that mimic natural stressors, but these experiments can be time-consuming, costly, and introduce tank effects, hindering scalability for hundreds of nursery genotypes used for outplanting. Here, we evaluated the efficacy of the acute Coral Bleaching Automated Stress System (CBASS) against long-term exposures on the bleaching response of Acropora cervicornis, the dominant restoration species in Florida's Coral Reef. Comparing bleaching metrics, Fv/Fm, chlorophyll, and host protein, we observed similar responses between the long-term heat and the CBASS treatment of 34.3 °C, which was also the calculated bleaching threshold. This suggests the potential of CBASS as a rapid screening tool, with 90% of restoration genotypes exhibiting similar bleaching tolerances. However, variations in acute bleaching phenotypes arose from measurement timing and experiment heat accumulation, cautioning against generalizations solely based on metrics like Fv/Fm. These findings identify the need to better refine the tools necessary to quickly and effectively screen coral restoration genotypes and determine their relative tolerance for restoration interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- C N Klepac
- Mote Marine Laboratory, International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration, Summerland Key, FL, USA.
- Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA, USA.
| | - C G Petrik
- Mote Marine Laboratory, International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration, Summerland Key, FL, USA
- National Coral Reef Institute, Nova Southeastern University, Dania Beach, FL, USA
| | - E Karabelas
- Mote Marine Laboratory, International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration, Summerland Key, FL, USA
- Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA, USA
| | - J Owens
- Mote Marine Laboratory, International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration, Summerland Key, FL, USA
- Tufts University, Worcester, MA, USA
| | - E R Hall
- Mote Marine Laboratory, International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration, Summerland Key, FL, USA
- Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, FL, USA
| | - E M Muller
- Mote Marine Laboratory, International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration, Summerland Key, FL, USA
- Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, FL, USA
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Brown KT, Lenz EA, Glass BH, Kruse E, McClintock R, Drury C, Nelson CE, Putnam HM, Barott KL. Divergent bleaching and recovery trajectories in reef-building corals following a decade of successive marine heatwaves. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2312104120. [PMID: 38113265 PMCID: PMC10756270 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2312104120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2023] [Accepted: 11/17/2023] [Indexed: 12/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Increasingly frequent marine heatwaves are devastating coral reefs. Corals that survive these extreme events must rapidly recover if they are to withstand subsequent events, and long-term survival in the face of rising ocean temperatures may hinge on recovery capacity and acclimatory gains in heat tolerance over an individual's lifespan. To better understand coral recovery trajectories in the face of successive marine heatwaves, we monitored the responses of bleaching-susceptible and bleaching-resistant individuals of two dominant coral species in Hawai'i, Montipora capitata and Porites compressa, over a decade that included three marine heatwaves. Bleaching-susceptible colonies of P. compressa exhibited beneficial acclimatization to heat stress (i.e., less bleaching) following repeat heatwaves, becoming indistinguishable from bleaching-resistant conspecifics during the third heatwave. In contrast, bleaching-susceptible M. capitata repeatedly bleached during all successive heatwaves and exhibited seasonal bleaching and substantial mortality for up to 3 y following the third heatwave. Encouragingly, bleaching-resistant individuals of both species remained pigmented across the entire time series; however, pigmentation did not necessarily indicate physiological resilience. Specifically, M. capitata displayed incremental yet only partial recovery of symbiont density and tissue biomass across both bleaching phenotypes up to 35 mo following the third heatwave as well as considerable partial mortality. Conversely, P. compressa appeared to recover across most physiological metrics within 2 y and experienced little to no mortality. Ultimately, these results indicate that even some visually robust, bleaching-resistant corals can carry the cost of recurring heatwaves over multiple years, leading to divergent recovery trajectories that may erode coral reef resilience in the Anthropocene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristen T. Brown
- Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA19104
| | - Elizabeth A. Lenz
- University of Hawai’i Sea Grant College Program, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI96822
| | - Benjamin H. Glass
- Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA19104
| | - Elisa Kruse
- Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA19104
| | - Rayna McClintock
- Daniel K. Inouye Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education, Department of Oceanography, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI96822
| | - Crawford Drury
- Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Kāne‘ohe, HI96744
| | - Craig E. Nelson
- University of Hawai’i Sea Grant College Program, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI96822
- Daniel K. Inouye Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education, Department of Oceanography, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI96822
| | - Hollie M. Putnam
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI02881
| | - Katie L. Barott
- Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA19104
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Gordon DM, Steiner E, Das B, Walker NS. Harvester ant colonies differ in collective behavioural plasticity to regulate water loss. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2023; 10:230726. [PMID: 37736532 PMCID: PMC10509591 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230726] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/23/2023]
Abstract
Collective behavioural plasticity allows ant colonies to adjust to changing conditions. The red harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex barbatus), a desert seed-eating species, regulates foraging activity in response to water stress. Foraging ants lose water to evaporation. Reducing foraging activity in dry conditions sacrifices food intake but conserves water. Within a year, some colonies tend to reduce foraging on dry days while others do not. We examined whether these differences among colonies in collective behavioural plasticity persist from year to year. Colonies live 20-30 years with a single queen who produces successive cohorts of workers which live only a year. The humidity level at which all colonies tend to reduce foraging varies from year to year. Longitudinal observations of 95 colonies over 5 years between 2016 and 2021 showed that differences among colonies, in how they regulate foraging activity in response to day-to-day changes in humidity, persist across years. Approximately 40% of colonies consistently reduced foraging activity, year after year, on days with low daily maximum relative humidity; approximately 20% of colonies never did, foraging as much or more on dry days as on humid days. This variation among colonies may allow evolutionary rescue from drought due to climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- D. M. Gordon
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - E. Steiner
- InfoGraphics Lab, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA
| | - Biplabendu Das
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - N. S. Walker
- Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Kāne'ohe, HI, USA
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De Wit P, Faust E, Green L, Jahnke M, Pereyra RT, Rafajlović M. A decade of progress in marine evolutionary biology. Evol Appl 2023; 16:193-201. [PMID: 36793695 PMCID: PMC9923465 DOI: 10.1111/eva.13523] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2022] [Accepted: 12/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
This article summarizes the Evolutionary Applications Special Issue, "A decade of progress in Marine Evolutionary Biology." The globally connected ocean, from its pelagic depths to its highly varied coastlines, inspired Charles Darwin to develop the theory of evolution during the voyage of the Beagle. As technology has developed, there has been a dramatic increase in our knowledge about life on our blue planet. This Special Issue, composed of 19 original papers and seven reviews, represents a small contribution to the larger picture of recent research in evolutionary biology, and how such advancements come about through the connection of researchers, their fields, and their knowledge. The first European network for marine evolutionary biology, the Linnaeus Centre for Marine Evolutionary Biology (CeMEB), was developed to study evolutionary processes in the marine environment under global change. Though hosted by the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, the network quickly grew to encompass researchers throughout Europe and beyond. Today, more than a decade after its foundation, CeMEB's focus on the evolutionary consequences of global change is more relevant than ever, and knowledge gained from marine evolution research is urgently needed in management and conservation. This Special Issue, organized and developed through the CeMEB network, contains contributions from all over the world and provides a snapshot of the current state of the field, thus forming an important basis for future research directions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre De Wit
- Linnaeus Centre for Marine Evolutionary Biology University of Gothenburg Strömstad Sweden.,Department of Marine Sciences, Tjärnö Marine Laboratory University of Gothenburg Strömstad Sweden
| | - Ellika Faust
- Linnaeus Centre for Marine Evolutionary Biology University of Gothenburg Strömstad Sweden.,Department of Marine Sciences, Tjärnö Marine Laboratory University of Gothenburg Strömstad Sweden
| | - Leon Green
- Linnaeus Centre for Marine Evolutionary Biology University of Gothenburg Strömstad Sweden.,Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences University of Gothenburg Gothenburg Sweden
| | - Marlene Jahnke
- Linnaeus Centre for Marine Evolutionary Biology University of Gothenburg Strömstad Sweden.,Department of Marine Sciences, Tjärnö Marine Laboratory University of Gothenburg Strömstad Sweden
| | - Ricardo T Pereyra
- Linnaeus Centre for Marine Evolutionary Biology University of Gothenburg Strömstad Sweden.,Department of Marine Sciences, Tjärnö Marine Laboratory University of Gothenburg Strömstad Sweden
| | - Marina Rafajlović
- Linnaeus Centre for Marine Evolutionary Biology University of Gothenburg Strömstad Sweden.,Department of Marine Sciences University of Gothenburg Gothenburg Sweden
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