The 3D Reconstruction of Pocillopora Colony Sheds Light on the Growth Pattern of This Reef-Building Coral

Yixin Li,Chunpeng He,Zuhong Lu,Kun Bi,Junyuan Chen,Tingyu Han,Jing Lu,Kun Liang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2020.101069

Yixin Li, Chunpeng He + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101069

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Abstract

SummaryCoral reefs are formed by living polyps, and understanding the dynamic processes behind the reefs is crucial for marine ecosystem restoration. However, these processes are still unclear because the growth and budding patterns of living polyps are poorly known. Here, we investigate the growth pattern of a widely distributed reef-building coral Pocillopora damicornis from Xisha Islands using high-resolution computed tomography. We examine the corallites in a single corallum of the species in detail, to interpret the budding, growth, and distribution pattern of the polyps, to reconstruct the growth pattern of this important reef-building species. Our results reveal a three-stage growth pattern of P. damicornis, based on different growth bundles that are secreted by polyps along the dichotomous growth axes of the corallites. Our work on the three-dimensional reconstruction of calice and inter-septal space structure of P. damicornis sheds lights on its reef-building processes by reconstructing the budding patterns.

Highlights

Reef-building scleractinian corals provide complex three-dimensional niches for various species (Costanza et al, 2014; Ellison et al, 2005; Knowlton et al, 2010; Weis et al, 2008; Graham, 2014)
In some regions of Xisha Islands where external disturbances such as the El Nino and ocean pollution have overwhelmed the capacity of corals to recover from damage, some stress-tolerant corals like P. damicornis show better environmental adaptability and become the dominant coral species instead of the most common species like Montipora and Acropora belonging to the family Acroporidae (Kayal et al, 2015; Bramanti and Edmunds, 2016; Adjeroud et al, 2018)
General Morphological Structure of P. damicornis We assembled a 3D morphological structure incorporating details at both macroscopic and microscopic scales by reconstructing a single P. damicornis corallum with a size of approximately 3,600 cm3 (Figure 1A)

Summary

Introduction

Reef-building scleractinian corals provide complex three-dimensional niches for various species (Costanza et al, 2014; Ellison et al, 2005; Knowlton et al, 2010; Weis et al, 2008; Graham, 2014). In some regions of Xisha Islands where external disturbances such as the El Nino and ocean pollution have overwhelmed the capacity of corals to recover from damage, some stress-tolerant corals like P. damicornis show better environmental adaptability and become the dominant coral species instead of the most common species like Montipora and Acropora belonging to the family Acroporidae (Kayal et al, 2015; Bramanti and Edmunds, 2016; Adjeroud et al, 2018) This makes P. damicornis an important animal, and various aspects concerning this species should be studied, such as their speciation (Johnston et al, 2017; Schmidt-Roach et al, 2014), reproduction (Miller and Ayre, 2004; Schmidt-Roach et al, 2012; Combosch and Vollmer, 2013), symbiosis (Cunning and Baker, 2012; Kopp, 2015; Brener-Raffalli et al, 2018), and population genetics (Stoddart, 1984; Souter et al, 2009; Thomas et al, 2017).

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