The South Atlantic coral Mussismilia harttii actively and quickly removes heavy crude oil from its surface

Abstract

The Brazilian coast was recently affected by the largest oil in its history. We exposed polyps of the South Atlantic reef-building coral Mussismilia harttii to 5 g of heavy crude oil collected from the spill. Polyps were able to remove the oil in less than two hours after exposure, through the production of mucus and gas bubbles. These findings are further evidence for the resilience of Mussismilia corals.

Oil Spill Incidents on Coral Reefs: Impacts and Remediation Technologies

“…Tissue death [19][20][21][22][23] Impaired feeding [20,22,24] Impaired polyp retraction [21,22,25,26] Impaired debug or recovery ability [27,28] Increased mucus production [22,[29][30][31][32] Change in calcification rate [21,[33][34][35] Damage to the gonads [29,36] Premature expulsion of larva [37,38] Larval death [36,39,40] Impaired larval settlement [36,[41][42][43][44][45] Expulsion of zooxanthellae [21,29] Change in primary production of zooxanthellae [21,23,26,46] Increased expression of genes associated with oxidative, immune, and metabolic stress responses [28,47] Muscle atrophy [29] Tissue and fragment loss [48] Bioaccumulation [10,…”

The Impact of Highly Weathered Oil from the Most Extensive Oil Spill in Tropical Oceans (Brazil) on the Microbiome of the Coral Mussismilia harttii

“…Current knowledge regarding the effects of oil contamination on corals has identified the following effects: tissue death [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ]; decreased growth rates [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]; changes in the Symbiodiniaceae dinoflagellates primary productivity [ 22 , 24 , 29 , 30 ]; excessive mucus production [ 23 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]; decreases in settlement and development of coral larvae [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ]; and changes in the coral’s symbiotic microbiota [ 24 , 30 ]. Nonetheless, each coral reef ecosystem around the world is unique, including differences in their microbiomes.…”