Abstract
Corals in nearshore marine environments are increasingly exposed to reduced water quality, which is the primary local threat to Hawaiian coral reefs. It is unclear if corals surviving in such conditions have adapted to withstand sedimentation, pollutants, and other environmental stressors. Lobe coral populations from Maunalua Bay, Hawaii showed clear genetic differentiation between the 'polluted, high-stress' nearshore site and the 'less polluted, lower-stress' offshore site. To understand the driving force of the observed genetic partitioning, reciprocal transplant and common-garden experiments were conducted to assess phenotypic differences between these two populations. Physiological responses differed significantly between the populations, revealing more stress-resilient traits in the nearshore corals. Changes in protein profiles highlighted the inherent differences in the cellular metabolic processes and activities between the two; nearshore corals did not significantly alter their proteome between the sites, while offshore corals responded to nearshore transplantation with increased abundances of proteins associated with detoxification, antioxidant defense, and regulation of cellular metabolic processes. The response differences across multiple phenotypes between the populations suggest local adaptation of nearshore corals to reduced water quality. Our results provide insight into coral’s adaptive potential and its underlying processes, and reveal potential protein biomarkers that could be used to predict resiliency.
Highlights
Corals in nearshore marine environments are increasingly exposed to reduced water quality, which is the primary local threat to Hawaiian coral reefs
Based on the genetic results, we tested whether N- and O-population structure of P. lobata in Maunalua Bay was due to local adaptation using reciprocal transplant and common garden experiments, as opposed to resulting from oceanographic currents or barriers[12]
The transplantation resulted in a significant reduction in the average tissue layer thickness (TLT) in only one treatment: O-corals transplanted to N-site (O → N) (Tukey-HSD, P-adj < 0.001, Fig. 2A, SI.1A)
Summary
Corals in nearshore marine environments are increasingly exposed to reduced water quality, which is the primary local threat to Hawaiian coral reefs. It is unclear if corals surviving in such conditions have adapted to withstand sedimentation, pollutants, and other environmental stressors. The response differences across multiple phenotypes between the populations suggest local adaptation of nearshore corals to reduced water quality. Coral reefs are among the most productive ecosystems on the planet, providing important benefits to diverse species that inhabit them and sustaining the lives of over 500 million people through their economic, cultural, physical, biological, and recreational services[1] Despite their importance, coral reefs worldwide are highly threatened by local and global stressors resulting from human activities. Analyses of tissue layer thickness, tissue lipid content, and proteomic profiles of P. lobata were completed following a 30-day reciprocal transplant experiment and short-term growth rates were compared using a common-garden experiment
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