Persistent shifts in Caribbean coral microbiota are linked to the 2010 warm thermal anomaly

Abstract

The response of corals to warm temperature anomalies includes changes in coral bacterial assemblages. There are clear differences between the microbiota of bleached and healthy corals. However, few studies have tracked the microbiota of individual colonies throughout a warming event. We used 454 pyrosequencing and repeated measures to characterize bacterial assemblages in 15 Gorgonia ventalina colonies before, during, 4 months after, and 1 year after the 2010 Caribbean warm thermal anomaly. In the latter three sampling times, the G. ventalina microbiota differed significantly from the microbiota of Orbicella faveolata colonies, which were sampled only at these three times. O. faveolata microbiota did not exhibit coordinated shifts through time. Notably, the microbiota of the repeatedly sampled G. ventalina colonies shifted persistently from before to during, after, and long after the warming event. The same pattern emerges from the norm of reaction for the individual G. ventalina colonies. This is the first study to show persistent shifts in coral microbiota in association with a warm thermal anomaly. Whether shifting microbiota is adaptive or maladaptive, the lasting change in bacterial assemblages following this warming event identifies a new way that coral microbiota shape the response of coral colonies under thermal stress.

Responses of Coral-Associated Bacterial Communities to Local and Global Stressors

“…However, this is not always the case, as other studies have demonstrated no significant change or a decrease in microbial diversity under these three stressors (Meron et al, 2012;Tracy et al, 2015;Morrow et al, 2017). These conflicting results likely are the result of variability in coral microbiome responses across coral host species, locations and stressors.…”

“…For example, O. faveolata's microbiome did not significantly shift when the host bleached (Tracy et al, 2015). Furthermore, coralassociated microbial communities did not undergo major shifts when transplanted to a natural lower pH environment and did not harbor microbial pathogens (Meron et al, 2012).…”

Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Pacific Oyster Hemolymph Microbiota across Multiple Scales

“…Similar studies regarding host-associated microbiota are almost exclusively limited to humans, (e.g., Caporaso et al, 2011; David et al, 2014; DiGiulio et al, 2015), and a handful of model organisms (e.g., Fink et al, 2013; Marino et al, 2014). Whereas temporal patterns have been studied in non-model organisms, the focus remains on the population level and the sampling resolution usually coincides with significant host/environment-related shifts: developmental (e.g., Trabal et al, 2012; Hroncova et al, 2015), seasonal (e.g., Zurel et al, 2011; Bjork et al, 2013; Ransome et al, 2014) or abiotic disturbances (e.g., Vega Thurber et al, 2009; Wegner et al, 2013; Tracy et al, 2015). Longitudinal, individual-based, repeated-measure studies remain scarce (but see Pratte et al, 2015; Glasl et al, 2016).…”

Unsustainable Land Use, Sediment-Laden Runoff, and Chronic Raw Sewage Offset the Benefits of Coral Reef Ecosystems in a No-Take Marine Protected Area

“…Coral-associated microbial community is highly dynamic, with seasonal fluctuations (Kimes, Johnson, Torralba, Nelson et al, 2013), but can suffer significant phase shifts throughout environmental stress gradients (Dinsdale, Pantos, Smriga, Edwards et al, 2008;Kelly, Williams, Barott, Carlson et al, 2014), and with eutrophication (Kline, Kuntz, Breitbart, Knowlton et al, 2006), bleaching and disease (Sekar, Kaczmarsky, & Richardson, 2008;Mao-Jones, Ritchie, Jones, & Ellner, 2010;Mouchka, Hewson, & Harvell, 2010), and sea surface warming trends (Tracy, Koren, Douglas, Weil et al, 2015). A significant interaction between macroalgal and turf proliferation, and microbial impacts to Caribbean corals corals Orbicella annularis (Barott, Rodrí guez-Mueller, Youle, Marhaver, 2012) and Porites astreoides (Vega-Thurber, Burkepile, Correa, Thurber et al, 2012) was also documented.…”