Feasibility of bacterial probiotics for mitigating coral bleaching

Abstract

Given the increasing frequency of climate change driven coral mass bleaching and mass mortality events, intervention strategies aimed at enhancing coral thermal tolerance (assisted evolution) are urgently needed in addition to strong action to reduce carbon emissions. Without such interventions, coral reefs will not survive. The seven chapters in my thesis explore the feasibility of using a host-sourced bacterial probiotic to mitigate bleaching starting with a history of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a biological explanation for bleaching (Chapter 1). In part because of the difficulty to experimentally manipulate corals post-bleaching, I use Great Barrier Reef (GBR)-sourced Exaiptasia dia..