Long-term changes in Symbiodinium communities in Orbicella annularis in St. John, US Virgin Islands

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 506:129-144 (2014) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10808 Long-term changes in Symbiodinium communities in Orbicella annularis in St. John, US Virgin Islands Peter J. Edmunds1,*, Xavier Pochon2,3, Don R. Levitan4, Denise M. Yost2, Mahdi Belcaid2, Hollie M. Putnam2, Ruth D. Gates2 1Department of Biology, California State University, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330-8303, USA 2Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii, PO Box 1346, Kaneohe, HI 96744, USA 3Environmental Technologies, Cawthron Institute, 98 Halifax Street East, Private Bag 2, Nelson 7042, New Zealand 4Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4295, USA *Corresponding author: peter.edmunds@csun.edu ABSTRACT: Efforts to monitor coral reefs rarely combine ecological and genetic tools to provide insight into the processes driving patterns of change. We focused on a coral reef at 14 m depth in St. John, US Virgin Islands, and used both sets of tools to examine 12 colonies of Orbicella (formerly Montastraea) annularis in 2 photoquadrats that were monitored for 16 yr and sampled genetically at the start and end of the study. Coral cover and colony growth were assessed annually, microsatellites were used to genetically identify coral hosts in 2010, and their Symbiodinium were genotyped using chloroplastic 23S (cloning) and nuclear ITS2 (cloning and pyrosequencing) in 1994 and 2010. Coral cover declined from 40 to 28% between 1994 and 2010, and 3 of the 12 sampled colonies increased in size, while 9 decreased in size. The relative abundance of Symbiodinium clades varied among corals over time, and patterns of change differed between photoquadrats but not among host genotypes. Symbiodinium communities in 8 corals in 1 photoquadrat differed among colonies and changed over time, with a trend towards reduced abundance of clade C and increased abundance of clade B. Symbiodinium communities in 4 corals in the second photoquadrat were similar among colonies, dominated by clade C, and remained relatively constant in clade composition over time. Based on an analysis that sampled only a small number of corals, but is unique in the long temporal scale and the combination of techniques employed, this study demonstrates that the processes underlying shifts in coral cover are complex and difficult to predict. Meter-scale variation in reef microhabitats affected Symbiodinium communities in O. annularis, and host genotype coupled with variation in Symbiodinium communities appeared to mediate colony success. KEY WORDS: Orbicella · Montastraea · Symbiodinium · Genetics · Ecology · Long-term · Virgin Islands Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Edmunds PJ, Pochon X, Levitan DR, Yost DM, Belcaid M, Putnam HM, Gates RD (2014) Long-term changes in Symbiodinium communities in Orbicella annularis in St. John, US Virgin Islands. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 506:129-144. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10808 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 506. Online publication date: June 23, 2014 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2014 Inter-Research.