Abstract
Coral ingestion by crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) is an important cause of coral reef degradation, although the impacts of COTS feeding on coral-associated microbial communities are not well understood. Therefore, in this study, we analyzed the coral tissue-weight, Symbiodiniaceae density (SD), bacterial community composition, and the predicted functions of bacterial genes associated with Pocillopora corals in healthy portions and feeding scars, following COTS feeding. Coral tissue-weight loss rate in the feeding scars was 71.3–94.95%. The SDs were significantly lower in the feeding scars, and the SD-loss rate was 92.05% ± 2.12%. The relative abundances of bacterial communities associated with Pocillopora corals after COTS feeding changed significantly and were almost completely reorganized at the phylum and genus levels. Analysis of the microbial metagenomic-functional capacities showed that numerous physiological functions of the coral-bacterial holobionts in the feeding scars were different, including amino acid metabolism, xenobiotic biodegradation and metabolism, lipid metabolism, membrane transport, signal transduction, and cell motility, and all these capacities could be corroborated based on metagenomic, transcriptomic or proteomic technologies. Overall, our research suggests that coral holobionts may be destroyed by COTS, and our findings imply that bacterial communities in feeding scars could affect the health of Pocillopora corals.
Highlights
Since the 1980s, most coral reefs worldwide have been threatened and have undergone rapid degradation [1,2]
By conducting an in-situ investigation of the Passu Keah atoll of the Xisha Islands in 2019, we found that many crownof-thorns starfish (COTS) fed upon Pocillopora corals and that the outer-side branches were ingested, whereas the inner branches were in a healthy state
2019, we found that many COTS were feeding upon corals, including Pocillopora corals
Summary
Since the 1980s, most coral reefs worldwide have been threatened and have undergone rapid degradation [1,2]. Many factors cause coral reef degradation, mainly including human destructive activities (e.g., overfishing and pollutant discharge), climate change (e.g., abnormally high temperatures), the emergence of coral diseases, and damage from coral predators [2,3,4,5]. Among these factors, damage from coral predators is a important factor in coral reef degradation. It is well known that many aquatic organisms are coral predators, including crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS, Acanthaster planci), sea urchins, Drupella spp., members of the family Labridae, etc.
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