Dynamic symbioses reveal pathways to coral survival through prolonged heatwaves
| dc.contributor.author | Claar, Danielle C. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Starko, Samuel | |
| dc.contributor.author | Tietjen, Kristina L. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Epstein, Hannah E. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Cunning, Ross | |
| dc.contributor.author | Cobb, Kim M. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Baker, Andrew C. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Gates, Ruth D. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Baum, Julia K. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-12-18T22:25:22Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-12-18T22:25:22Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2020 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 2020 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Prospects for coral persistence through increasingly frequent and extended heatwaves seem bleak. Coral recovery from bleaching is only known to occur after temperatures return to normal, and mitigation of local stressors does not appear to augment coral survival. Capitalizing on a natural experiment in the equatorial Pacific, we track individual coral colonies at sites spanning a gradient of local anthropogenic disturbance through a tropical heatwave of unprecedented duration. Unexpectedly, some corals survived the event by recovering from bleaching while still at elevated temperatures. These corals initially had heat-sensitive algal symbiont communities, endured bleaching, and then recovered through proliferation of heat-tolerant symbionts. This pathway to survival only occurred in the absence of strong local stressors. In contrast, corals in highly disturbed areas were already dominated by heat-tolerant symbionts, and despite initially resisting bleaching, these corals had no survival advantage in one species and 3.3 times lower survival in the other. These unanticipated connections between disturbance, coral symbioses and heat stress resilience reveal multiple pathways to coral survival through future prolonged heatwaves. | en_US |
| dc.description.reviewstatus | Reviewed | en_US |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Faculty | en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship | We are grateful to the Government of Kiribati, and the people of Kiritimati for their support of our research over many years. Thanks also to H. Putnam for discussions about Symbiodiniaceae and bioinformatics, J. Davidson for logistical and lab support, A. Eggers for molecular sequencing. D.C.C. acknowledges support from the NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, administered by UCAR’s Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science (CPAESS) under award # NA18NWS4620043B and a NSERC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, funding from the American Academy of Underwater Sciences, International Society for Reef Studies, National Geographic Young Explorers Grant, University of Victoria (UVic), and the Women Divers Hall of Fame, and equipment grants from Sea-Bird Electronics and Divers Alert Network. R.D.G. and J.K.B. acknowledge support from NSF RAPID (OCE- 1446402). J.K.B. acknowledges support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation, a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation, an NSERC Discovery Grant and E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the University of Victoria. D.C.C. and J.K.B. acknowledge funding from UVic’s Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives. S.S. acknowledges support from NSERC in the form of a Postdoctoral Fellowship. K.L.T. acknowledges support from Mitacs. R.D.G. acknowledged the University of Hawaiʻi. A.C.B. and R.C. acknowledge support from NSF OCE-1358699 and OCE-1851392. During the preparation of this paper, co-author R.D.G. passed away due to complications from cancer. R.D.G. was a passionate scientist, our mentor and friend, and a bright light and force for good and positivity for the coral community at large. We miss her immensely. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.citation | Claar, D. C., Starko, S., Tietjen, K. L., Epstein, H. E., Cunning, R., Cobb, K. M.…Baum, J. K. (2020). Dynamic symbioses reveal pathways to coral survival through prolonged heatwaves. Nature Communications, 11, 6097. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19169-y | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19169-y | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1828/12464 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Nature Communications | en_US |
| dc.title | Dynamic symbioses reveal pathways to coral survival through prolonged heatwaves | en_US |
| dc.type | Article | en_US |