Abstract
Coral exposed to short periods of temperature stress (≥1.0°C above mean monthly maximum) and/or increased frequencies of high temperatures may bolster resilience to global warming associated with climate change. We comparedMontastraea cavernosa(Linnaeus, 1767; Cnidaria, Scleractinia, Faviidae) from the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) and the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS). Thermal stress has been reported frequently within the FKNMS; however, corals in the FGBNMS experience nominal exposures to similar stressors. Corals were exposed to three temperatures (27°C, 31°C, and 35°C) for 72 h. Colonies from the FKNMS lost significantly fewer viable and necrotic zooxanthellae under conditions of acute stress (35°C) than the FGBNMS colonies. This indicates that the FKNMS corals are less temperature-sensitive than those in the FGBNMS. The observed differences point to greater prior temperature exposure and adaptation in the former versus the latter site when correlated to previous years of thermal exposure.
Highlights
The earliest reefs are believed to have existed more than 3.4 billion years ago, dating back to the Early Archean era [1]
The second set of aliquots consisting of twelve microcentrifuge tubes used for flow cytometry (FCM) were prepared using 100 μL of 1 × Annexin-binding buffer (ABB) added to each microcentrifuge tube following the recommendations of the manufacturer
An additional 400 μL of ABB was added to each microcentrifuge tube and the contents gently vortexed for 1 min
Summary
The earliest reefs are believed to have existed more than 3.4 billion years ago, dating back to the Early Archean era [1]. More “modern” reefs consisting of coral and algae evolved during the Oligocene and Miocene, ∼5 million years ago [3]. Present day reefs, such as the IndoPacific Great Barrier Reef (GBR) have evolved over the last 500–600 K years [4]. During each of these major eras of reef development, major climate changes throughout the geological time are believed to have influenced the evolution of species and the subsequently, adaptation of surviving species to these changes [1]. On the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, 50–60% of the reefs bleached, affecting 75,000 to 210,000 km2 [13, 14]
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