Genetic variation in heat tolerance of the coral<i>Platygyra daedalea</i>indicates potential for adaptation to ocean warming

Elder, Holland; Weis, Virginia M.; Montalvo-Proano, Jose; Mocellin, Véronique J. L.; Baird, Andrew H.; Meyer, Eli; Bay, Line K.

doi:10.1101/2020.10.13.337089

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 110 publications

(183 reference statements)

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“…Bleaching tolerance to thermal stress has a strong genetic basis in acroporid corals (Oliver and Palumbi, 2011;Howells et al, 2013;Bay and Palumbi, 2014;Dixon et al, 2015;Drury and Lirman, 2021) and Platygyra sp. (Elder et al, 2020), and here we extend knowledge to a representative of the genus Pocillopora. While bleaching tolerance is recognized to be polygenic (Fuller et al, 2020), host outlier loci may be used as biomarkers if they vary in individuals with differing performance to environmental conditions (Parkinson et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Signatures of Adaptation and Acclimatization to Reef Flat and Slope Habitats in the Coral Pocillopora damicornis

et al. 2021

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Strong population-by-habitat interactions across environmental gradients arise from genetic adaptation or acclimatization and represents phenotypic variation required for populations to respond to changing environmental conditions. As such, patterns of adaptation and acclimatization of reef-building corals are integral to predictions of the future of coral reefs under climate warming. The common brooding coral, Pocillopora damicornis, exhibits extensive differences in host genetic and microbial symbiont community composition between depth habitats at Heron Island in the southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia. An 18-month reciprocal field transplant experiment was undertaken to examine the environmental and genetic drivers behind variation in survival, weight gain, heat tolerance and algal symbiont community between the reef flat and slope habitats. We observed population-by-habitat interactions for in situ partial mortality and weight gain, where trait-related fitness of natives was greater than transplants in most cases, consistent with local adaptation. On average, flat colonies transplanted to the slope had a relatively low partial mortality but minimal weight gain, whereas slope colonies transplanted to the flat had relatively high partial mortality and average weight gain. Experimental heat tolerance was always higher in colonies sourced from the flat, but increased when slope colonies were transplanted to the flat, providing evidence of acclimatization in these colonies. The performance of certain slope to flat transplants may have been driven by each colony’s algal symbiont (Symbiodiniaceae) community, and flat variants were observed in a small number of slope colonies that either had a fixed flat composition before transplantation or shuffled after transplantation. Host genotypes of previously identified genetic outlier loci could not predict survival following transplantation, possibly because of low sample size and/or polygenic basis to the traits examined. Local environmental conditions and Symbiodiniaceae composition may provide insight into the adaptive potential to changing environmental conditions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Signatures of Adaptation and Acclimatization to Reef Flat and Slope Habitats in the Coral Pocillopora damicornis

et al. 2021

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“…An increase in the frequency of these mass bleaching events impedes a reef's ability to potentially recover to previous levels of coral cover before the next disturbance event [8]. Coral reefs show some potential to endure anthropogenic impacts through rapid acclimation and adaptation [9][10][11]. However, some reef restoration may be needed to maintain resiliency whilst global efforts to reduce warming are implemented.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Machine Learning for the Fast and Accurate Assessment of Fitness in Coral Early Life History

2021

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As coral reefs continue to degrade globally due to climate change, considerable effort and investment is being put into coral restoration. The production of coral offspring via asexual and sexual reproduction are some of the proposed tools for restoring coral populations and will need to be delivered at scale. Simple, inexpensive, and high-throughput methods are therefore needed for rapid analysis of thousands of coral offspring. Here we develop a machine learning pipeline to rapidly and accurately measure three key indicators of coral juvenile fitness: survival, size, and color. Using machine learning, we classify pixels through an open-source, user-friendly interface to quickly identify and measure coral juveniles on two substrates (field deployed terracotta tiles and experimental, laboratory PVC plastic slides). The method’s ease of use and ability to be trained quickly and accurately using small training sets make it suitable for application with images of species of sexually produced corals without existing datasets. Our results show higher accuracy of survival for slides (94.6% accuracy with five training images) compared to field tiles measured over multiple months (March: 77.5%, June: 91.3%, October: 97.9% accuracy with 100 training images). When using fewer training images, accuracy of area measurements was also higher on slides (7.7% average size difference) compared to tiles (24.2% average size difference for October images). The pipeline was 36× faster than manual measurements. The slide images required fewer training images compared to tiles and we provided cut-off guidelines for training for both substrates. These results highlight the importance and power of incorporating high-throughput methods, substrate choice, image quality, and number of training images for measurement accuracy. This study demonstrates the utility of machine learning tools for scalable ecological studies and conservation practices to facilitate rapid management decisions for reef protection.

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“…1b). Current estimates of coral heat tolerance h 2 are based on survival of early life stages [22][23][24][25][26][27][28] and bleaching responses of adults to short-term stress exposures 29 . Remarkably, no study to date has estimated h 2 for any trait in selectively bred adult corals, presumably because of the difficulty and long time periods required to rear offspring corals to adulthood (multiple years).…”

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Breeding corals for heat tolerance

Humanes,

Lachs,

Beauchamp

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Marine heatwaves are becoming more frequent, widespread and severe1, leading to mass coral bleaching and mortality. Yet it remains unknown whether natural coral adaptation can keep pace with climate warming2. As a result, selective breeding has been proposed to enhance coral heat tolerance3. The viability of this management solution hinges on the extent of heritability of coral heat tolerance. We show that selecting parent colonies for heat tolerance results in higher tolerance of adult offspring. This result held true for the response to both a 1-week and a 1-month simulated marine heatwave. In each case, narrow-sense heritability (h2) estimates are between 0.2 and 0.3, demonstrating a substantial genetic component to variation in heat tolerance. Given the variability in this population4, selective breeding could enhance heat tolerance by up to 1 °C-week within one generation. Contrary to expectations, we found no genetic correlation between short- and long-term heat stress tolerance. Selective breeding for short-stress tolerance did not enhance the ability of offspring to survive the long heat stress exposure, demonstrating that these traits are subject to independent genetic control. We demonstrate that selective breeding to enhance coral heat tolerance is feasible and a potential solution to help corals face ocean warming.

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Genetic variation in heat tolerance of the coralPlatygyra daedaleaindicates potential for adaptation to ocean warming

Cited by 6 publications

References 110 publications

Signatures of Adaptation and Acclimatization to Reef Flat and Slope Habitats in the Coral Pocillopora damicornis

Signatures of Adaptation and Acclimatization to Reef Flat and Slope Habitats in the Coral Pocillopora damicornis

Machine Learning for the Fast and Accurate Assessment of Fitness in Coral Early Life History

Breeding corals for heat tolerance

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