Journal article
Heat-evolved microalgal symbionts increase thermal bleaching tolerance of coral juveniles without a trade-off against growth
KM Quigley, C Alvarez-Roa, JB Raina, M Pernice, MJH van Oppen
Coral Reefs | SPRINGER | Published : 2023
Abstract
Global climate change is threatening the persistence of coral reefs as associated summer heatwaves trigger the loss of microalgal endosymbionts (Symbiodiniaceae) from the coral tissues, or coral bleaching. We infected aposymbiotic juveniles of the coral Acropora tenuis with either wildtype (WT10) or heat-evolved (SS1 or SS8) Symbiodiniaceae strains Cladocopium proliferum (formerly referred to as Cladocopium goreaui and Cladocopium C1acro). After 10 months at 27 °C, SS8-juveniles were 2 × larger than SS1- or WT10-juveniles. In response to a simulated heatwave (31 °C for 41 days), the WT10-juveniles bleached and showed a decline in respiration while cell densities and respiration in both SS-ju..
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Awarded by Australian Institute of Marine Science
Funding Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Sven Uthicke for the use of the respirometry chambers, Sam Noonan for his advice on respirometry, and Rachael Collins for her help in performing the ImageJ measurements of the coral juveniles. We would like to thank Paul Guagliardo and Jeremy Bougoure for acquiring the NanoSIMS data. We would also like to thank Nick Carey for his help with the respiration data and for developing the respR package, and the AIMS workshop for bespoke machining of respirometry vial adaptors and holders.