Effects of morphology and water motion on carbon delivery and productivity in the reef coral, Pocillopora damicornis (Linnaeus): Diffusion barriers, inorganic carbon limitation, and biochemical plasticity

Lesser, Michael P.; Weis, Virginia M.; Patterson, Mark; Jokiel, Paul L.

doi:10.1016/0022-0981(94)90034-5

Cited by 237 publications

(211 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…We hypothesize that the reason lies in the highly dynamic environment at the coral surface, where resident microbes contend for the best niches (Ritchie, 2006), mucus is periodically shed (Garren and Azam, 2012), surface cilia deter the attachment of fouling organisms (Wahl et al, 1998) and external flows on the order of millimeters per second sweep over the colony (Lesser et al, 1994). The residence time next to the surface is likely to be short, offering the pathogen only limited windows of opportunity for colonization of the host.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A bacterial pathogen uses dimethylsulfoniopropionate as a cue to target heat-stressed corals

et al. 2013

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Diseases are an emerging threat to ocean ecosystems. Coral reefs, in particular, are experiencing a worldwide decline because of disease and bleaching, which have been exacerbated by rising seawater temperatures. Yet, the ecological mechanisms behind most coral diseases remain unidentified. Here, we demonstrate that a coral pathogen, Vibrio coralliilyticus, uses chemotaxis and chemokinesis to target the mucus of its coral host, Pocillopora damicornis. A primary driver of this response is the host metabolite dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), a key element in the global sulfur cycle and a potent foraging cue throughout the marine food web. Coral mucus is rich in DMSP, and we found that DMSP alone elicits chemotactic responses of comparable intensity to whole mucus. Furthermore, in heat-stressed coral fragments, DMSP concentrations increased fivefold and the pathogen's chemotactic response was correspondingly enhanced. Intriguingly, despite being a rich source of carbon and sulfur, DMSP is not metabolized by the pathogen, suggesting that it is used purely as an infochemical for host location. These results reveal a new role for DMSP in coral disease, demonstrate the importance of chemical signaling and swimming behavior in the recruitment of pathogens to corals and highlight the impact of increased seawater temperatures on disease pathways.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A bacterial pathogen uses dimethylsulfoniopropionate as a cue to target heat-stressed corals

et al. 2013

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“…Similarly, Le Tissier (1988) divided the growth of Pocillopora damicornis branches into seven categories, but stated that these categories exhibited a single continuous process, found to be similar in corals growing even under different environmental conditions. These outcomes recall gorgonians astogeny Velimirov, 1995, 1998), where the colony grows in a way that reduces the ratio between colony height and colony width, a strategy aiming to decelerate the perpendicular growth of the colony into the high water column (in which drag forces from the currents are stronger; Lesser et al, 1994;Bruno and Edmunds, 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Branch to colony trajectory in a modular organism: Pattern formation in the Indo‐Pacific coral Stylophora pistillata

Shaish

Abelson

Rinkevich

2006

Developmental Dynamics

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The architecture of the colony in a branching coral is an iterative process in which new layers of calcium carbonate compile atop existing structures that remain unchanged. Colony growth and development, known as astogeny, is believed to be a continuous process, characterized by replication of lower rank unites, polyps, and branches. This study seeks to explore the genetic blueprint of branch-to-colony developmental trajectory in the branching coral Stylophora pistillata, within an astogeny period of 1 year. One hundred small branches (initially 2-4 cm long) were sampled from 10 colonies. A year later, 63 remaining colonies were analyzed for their architectural rules by using 15 morphometric parameters. Multivariate statistical tests were preformed. Cluster and two-dimensional nonmetric Multi-Dimensional Scaling analyses revealed that the 10 genotypes could be divided into two major morphometric groups and two intermediate groups, whereas SIMPER analyses (a similarity percentage test) on within-genet similarities showed high similarity between the ramets developed from each of the 10 genotypes. Although, at first, it seemed that different colonies exhibited variable and different architectural designs (each characterized by specific morphometric parameters), a comprehensive analysis revealed that all 10 coral genotypes exhibited a single common developmental plan that was characterized by a continuum of architectural design with several distinct stages. Each stage is marked by its own characteristic morphometric parameters. Changing of developmental rules during the trajectory from branch to coral colony may help the colony to cope better with environmental constraints. Developmental Dynamics 235: 2111-2121, 2006.

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“…Third, calcification in corals is driven by their ability to maintain high pH at the site of CaCO 3 deposition by the export of protons from the site of calcification, but proton export might become more energetically costly under OA conditions [19,20,23]. This hypothesis could explain the resistance of P. damicornis to OA, because it exhibits a highly branched corallum [56] that favours efflux of protons from the site of calcification to the surrounding seawater [23].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pacific-wide contrast highlights resistance of reef calcifiers to ocean acidification

et al. 2014

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Ocean acidification (OA) and its associated decline in calcium carbonate saturation states is one of the major threats that tropical coral reefs face this century. Previous studies of the effect of OA on coral reef calcifiers have described a wide variety of outcomes for studies using comparable partial pressure of CO 2 (pCO 2 ) ranges, suggesting that key questions remain unresolved. One unresolved hypothesis posits that heterogeneity in the response of reef calcifiers to high pCO 2 is a result of regional-scale variation in the responses to OA. To test this hypothesis, we incubated two coral taxa (Pocillopora damicornis and massive Porites) and two calcified algae (Porolithon onkodes and Halimeda macroloba) under 400, 700 and 1000 matm pCO 2 levels in experiments in Moorea (French Polynesia), Hawaii (USA) and Okinawa (Japan), where environmental conditions differ. Both corals and H. macroloba were insensitive to OA at all three locations, while the effects of OA on P. onkodes were locationspecific. In Moorea and Hawaii, calcification of P. onkodes was depressed by high pCO 2 , but for specimens in Okinawa, there was no effect of OA. Using a study of large geographical scale, we show that resistance to OA of some reef species is a constitutive character expressed across the Pacific.

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Effects of morphology and water motion on carbon delivery and productivity in the reef coral, Pocillopora damicornis (Linnaeus): Diffusion barriers, inorganic carbon limitation, and biochemical plasticity

Cited by 237 publications

References 52 publications

A bacterial pathogen uses dimethylsulfoniopropionate as a cue to target heat-stressed corals

A bacterial pathogen uses dimethylsulfoniopropionate as a cue to target heat-stressed corals

Branch to colony trajectory in a modular organism: Pattern formation in the Indo‐Pacific coral Stylophora pistillata

Pacific-wide contrast highlights resistance of reef calcifiers to ocean acidification

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