Polyp bailout and reattachment of the abundant Caribbean octocoral Eunicea flexuosa

Wells, Christopher D.; Tonra, Kaitlyn J.

doi:10.1007/s00338-020-02043-0

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(38 reference statements)

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“…Polyp bailout, by contrast, refers to the escape of polyps without calices from a parent colony in response to acute environmental stress (e.g. Sammarco 1982;Kružić 2007;Capel et al 2014;Serrano et al 2018) and was also observed for octocoral species (Rakka et al 2019;Wells and Tonra 2020). Thus, polyp bail-out provides a route of escape to new locations for possible resettlement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polyp dropout in a solitary cold-water coral

et al. 2021

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Scleractinian corals feature both sessile and mobile stages and diverse modes of development. In some cases, development can be reversed. Examples include polyp detachment in response to environmental stress (bail-out or polyp expulsion) and reverse metamorphosis, where juveniles detach from the primary skeleton and revert to the mobile stage. Here, we provide aquaria and field evidence of a new form of reverse development: polyp dropout in the solitary cold-water coral Caryophyllia huinayensis. It features tissue retraction and detachment of an entire adult polyp from the skeleton in the putative absence of a stressor. The dropout polyp remains viable and continues to live for many weeks, albeit in a rather collapsed state lacking a well-developed hydroskeleton. We carried out a long-term (37 months) rearing experiment under constant aquaria conditions and found polyp dropout in four out of 83 individuals. Detachment was accompanied by the extrusion of mesenterial filaments through perforations in the body wall. We believe this resulted in the loss of the hydroskeleton, which prevented the dropouts to subsequently resettle or form a new skeleton. As opposed to other known forms of reverse development, the new form is not accompanied by reversible metamorphosis, abandonment of the colonial way of life, nor is it a survival or asexual reproduction strategy. We found field indications of polyp dropout in Patagonian field populations of C. huinayensis, where 1.4 ± 0.8% (mean ± SD, N = 9322) of the polyps of the natural population showed partial detachment indicative of imminent dropout in the putative absence of external impact. Polyp dropout is the first record of polyp detachment in a solitary CWC with possible repercussions for adult coral mobility, evolution and Stanley’s (2003) ‘naked coral’ hypothesis.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polyp dropout in a solitary cold-water coral

et al. 2021

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“…Though a range of asexual reproductive strategies has been documented in corals, including colony fragmentation [26], polyp bail-out [11,27] and the asexual production of larvae [12,28,29], the unique ecological context of the mangrove population studied here implicates asexual production of planula larvae as the only plausible mode of clonal reproduction. Given that individuals are growing on prop-roots suspended over a mud/silt bottom, reproduction via colony fragmentation, which is thought to be a common mode of asexual reproduction in P. divaricata [30], would invariably result in mortality because colony fragments cannot re-adhere to the prop-roots, and those that fall to the bottom are quickly submerged in soft sediment, a phenomenon that we have repeatedly observed in the field (figure 1 d ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given that individuals are growing on prop-roots suspended over a mud/silt bottom, reproduction via colony fragmentation, which is thought to be a common mode of asexual reproduction in P. divaricata [30], would invariably result in mortality because colony fragments cannot re-adhere to the prop-roots, and those that fall to the bottom are quickly submerged in soft sediment, a phenomenon that we have repeatedly observed in the field (figure 1 d ). Similarly, isolated individual polyps produced by polyp bail-out, a mechanism of asexual reproduction that has never been reported in poritid corals, would be unable to colonize prop-roots and would fall to the mud bottom because they are ‘slightly negatively buoyant’, with limited mobility [11,27]. By contrast, planulae are capable of directed swimming, searching behaviour and settlement, and asexual planulation has been reported in another Porites species [12].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rampant asexual reproduction and limited dispersal in a mangrove population of the coral Porites divaricata

et al. 2023

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Corals are critical to marine biodiversity. Reproduction and dispersal are key to their resilience, but rarely quantified in nature. Exploiting a unique system—a fully censused, longitudinally characterized, semi-isolated population inhabiting mangroves—we used 2bRAD sequencing to demonstrate that rampant asexual reproduction most likely via parthenogenesis and limited dispersal enable the persistence of a natural population of thin-finger coral ( Porites divaricata ). Unlike previous studies on coral dispersal, knowledge of colony age and location enabled us to identify plausible parent–offspring relationships within multiple clonal lineages and develop tightly constrained estimates of larval dispersal; the best-fitting model indicates dispersal is largely limited to a few metres from parent colonies. Our results explain why this species is adept at colonizing mangroves but suggest limited genetic diversity in mangrove populations and limited connectivity between mangroves and nearby reefs. As P. divaricata is gonochoristic, and parthenogenesis would be restricted to females (whereas fragmentation, which is presumably common in reef and seagrass habitats, is not), mangrove populations likely exhibit skewed sex ratios. These findings suggest that coral reproductive diversity can lead to distinctly different demographic outcomes in different habitats. Thus, coral conservation will require the protection of the entire coral habitat mosaic, and not just reefs.

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“…Zooxanthellae density and Chl a contentThis study showed that the number of zooxanthellae and the Chl a content were relatively stable in the Y and Z, while group X showed a signi cant downward trend. Unsuitable photoperiod might cause zooxanthellae to escape from the polyps to avoid the adverse environment, resulting in a decline in the number of zooxanthellae and the content of Chl a(Nakamura et al 2017;Wells et al 2021). In addition, the photosynthetic e ciency of the coral-symbiotic zooxanthellae would decrease when illumination time was insu cient, thus affecting the growth of corals at the end.…”

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confidence: 99%

Cultivation and conservation of the soft coral Sarcophyton trocheliophorum: Light intensity and photoperiod regulation

Dong

Wang

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Coral reefs are one of the most diverse, productive ecosystems in the world, and light plays crucial role in its survival. Notably, the effects of light conditions on soft coral and its adaptive mechanism were unclear. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate and evaluate the effects of different light intensities (30, 80 and 130μmol m−2 s−1) and photoperiods (18D:6L, 12D:12L and 6D:18L) on cultivation of soft coral Sarcophyton trocheliophorum. During two 50-day of the experiments, we monitored the zooxanthellae density, Chl a content, enzyme activities (SOD, CAT and GST) and microbial diversity of S. trocheliophorum. Our study's outcomes found that, at the end of the experiment, the 80μmol m−2 s−1 light intensity group and 12D:12L photoperiod group both possessed the highest zooxanthellae density (2.54×108 ± 0.14×108cells g−1 DW and 2.40×108 ± 0.07×108cells g−1 DW, respectively), Chl a content (295.01 ± 14.13µg g−1 DW and 287.78 ± 16.13µg g−1 DW, respectively) and microbial diversity and relatively stable enzyme activities level. Besides, we speculated that the reason for the decline of zooxanthellae density Chl a content and microbial diversity under other light conditions might be that it induced light stress and caused oxidative damage. The main bacterial composition of S. trocheliophorum in different light conditions was similar at the phylum level, showing the stability of microbial community structure. Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Firmicutes were dominant under all light conditions, so we hypothesized that these bacteria phylum play a crucial role in coral growth and survival. In conclusion, compared with the other treatments, 80μmol m−2 s−1 light intensity and 12D:12L photoperiod were more beneficial to the growth performance of S. trocheliophorum and could be recommended for its cultivation condition. Our study could provide helpful information for sustainable management plans for the cultivation and conservation of soft corals, which was especially important to the protection and restoration of degraded coral reefs.

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Polyp bailout and reattachment of the abundant Caribbean octocoral Eunicea flexuosa

Cited by 6 publications

References 31 publications

Polyp dropout in a solitary cold-water coral

Polyp dropout in a solitary cold-water coral

Rampant asexual reproduction and limited dispersal in a mangrove population of the coral Porites divaricata

Cultivation and conservation of the soft coral Sarcophyton trocheliophorum: Light intensity and photoperiod regulation

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