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Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open
Journal article
Coral recruits demonstrate thermal resilience
PeerJ, Vol.12, pp.1-23
12/11/2024
PMCID: PMC11566514
PMID: 39553712
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Source: InCites
Abstract
Marine heatwaves are becoming more frequent during summer and pose a significant threat to coral reef ecosystems. Restoration efforts have the potential to support native coral populations and guard them against some degree of environmental change, while global action against climate change takes place. Interspecific hybridization is one approach through which resilient coral stock could be generated for restoration. Here we compared the performance of Acropora kenti and A. loripes hybrid and purebred coral recruits under a simulated thermal stress event. A. kenti eggs were successfully fertilized by A. loripes sperm to produce ‘KL’ hybrids, but no ‘LK’ hybrids could be produced from A. loripes eggs and A. kenti sperm. Despite corals in the elevated treatment accruing thermal stress (>12 degree heating weeks over 2 months) known to result in mass bleaching, both purebred and hybrid recruits showed no signs of stress under the simulated temperature regime, based on the performance indicators survivorship, size, color (a proxy of bleaching), and photochemical efficiency of photosystem II. Comparisons between the hybrids and purebreds studied here must be interpreted with caution because hybrid sample sizes were small. The hybrids did not outperform both of their purebred counterparts for any metrics studied here, demonstrating that there are limitations to the extent to which interspecific hybridization may boost the performance of coral stock. In general, the purebred A. loripes recruits performed best under both ambient and elevated conditions. The performance of the KL hybrid corals was similar to the maternal parental species, A. kenti , or not significantly different to either parental purebred species. The Symbiodiniaceae communities of the KL hybrids were characteristic of their maternal counterparts and may have underpinned the performance differences between the A. kenti /KL hybrid and A. loripes recruits.
Details
- Title
- Coral recruits demonstrate thermal resilience
- Creators
- Annika M. Lamb - Australian Institute of Marine ScienceLesa M. Peplow - Australian Institute of Marine SciencePeter L. Harrison - Southern Cross UniversityCraig A. Humphrey - Australian Institute of Marine ScienceLorenzo Latini - Australian Institute of Marine ScienceGuy A. McCutchan - Australian Institute of Marine ScienceMadeleine J. H. van Oppen - University of Melbourne
- Publication Details
- PeerJ, Vol.12, pp.1-23
- Publisher
- PeerJ Publishing
- Grant note
- This research was supported by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship, and Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship FL180100036.
- Identifiers
- 991013233106602368
- Copyright
- © Copyright 2024 Lamb et al. Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering; Science
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article