Cargando…
Seasonal Mesophotic Coral Bleaching of Stylophora pistillata in the Northern Red Sea
Coral bleaching occurs when environmental stress induces breakdown of the coral-algae symbiosis and the host initiates algae expulsion. Two types of coral bleaching had been thoroughly discussed in the scientific literature; the first is primarily associated with mass coral bleaching events; the sec...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2014
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3893136/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24454772 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084968 |
_version_ | 1782299628273664000 |
---|---|
author | Nir, Orit Gruber, David F. Shemesh, Eli Glasser, Eliezra Tchernov, Dan |
author_facet | Nir, Orit Gruber, David F. Shemesh, Eli Glasser, Eliezra Tchernov, Dan |
author_sort | Nir, Orit |
collection | PubMed |
description | Coral bleaching occurs when environmental stress induces breakdown of the coral-algae symbiosis and the host initiates algae expulsion. Two types of coral bleaching had been thoroughly discussed in the scientific literature; the first is primarily associated with mass coral bleaching events; the second is a seasonal loss of algae and/or pigments. Here, we describe a phenomenon that has been witnessed for repeated summers in the mesophotic zone (40–63 m) in the northern Red Sea: seasonal bleaching and recovery of several hermatypic coral species. In this study, we followed the recurring bleaching process of the common coral Stylophora pistillata. Bleaching occurred from April to September with a 66% decline in chlorophyll a concentration, while recovery began in October. Using aquarium and transplantation experiments, we explored environmental factors such as temperature, photon flux density and heterotrophic food availability. Our experiments and observations did not yield one single factor, alone, responsible for the seasonal bleaching. The dinoflagellate symbionts (of the genus Symbiodinium) in shallow (5 m) Stylophora pistillata were found to have a net photosynthetic rate of 56.98–92.19 µmol O(2) cm(−2) day(−1). However, those from mesophotic depth (60 m) during months when they are not bleached are net consumers of oxygen having a net photosynthetic rate between −12.86 - (−10.24) µmol O(2) cm(−2) day(−1). But during months when these mesophotic corals are partially-bleached, they yielded higher net production, between −2.83–0.76 µmol O(2) cm(−2) day(−1). This study opens research questions as to why mesophotic zooxanthellae are more successfully meeting the corals metabolic requirements when Chl a concentration decreases by over 60% during summer and early fall. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3893136 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-38931362014-01-21 Seasonal Mesophotic Coral Bleaching of Stylophora pistillata in the Northern Red Sea Nir, Orit Gruber, David F. Shemesh, Eli Glasser, Eliezra Tchernov, Dan PLoS One Research Article Coral bleaching occurs when environmental stress induces breakdown of the coral-algae symbiosis and the host initiates algae expulsion. Two types of coral bleaching had been thoroughly discussed in the scientific literature; the first is primarily associated with mass coral bleaching events; the second is a seasonal loss of algae and/or pigments. Here, we describe a phenomenon that has been witnessed for repeated summers in the mesophotic zone (40–63 m) in the northern Red Sea: seasonal bleaching and recovery of several hermatypic coral species. In this study, we followed the recurring bleaching process of the common coral Stylophora pistillata. Bleaching occurred from April to September with a 66% decline in chlorophyll a concentration, while recovery began in October. Using aquarium and transplantation experiments, we explored environmental factors such as temperature, photon flux density and heterotrophic food availability. Our experiments and observations did not yield one single factor, alone, responsible for the seasonal bleaching. The dinoflagellate symbionts (of the genus Symbiodinium) in shallow (5 m) Stylophora pistillata were found to have a net photosynthetic rate of 56.98–92.19 µmol O(2) cm(−2) day(−1). However, those from mesophotic depth (60 m) during months when they are not bleached are net consumers of oxygen having a net photosynthetic rate between −12.86 - (−10.24) µmol O(2) cm(−2) day(−1). But during months when these mesophotic corals are partially-bleached, they yielded higher net production, between −2.83–0.76 µmol O(2) cm(−2) day(−1). This study opens research questions as to why mesophotic zooxanthellae are more successfully meeting the corals metabolic requirements when Chl a concentration decreases by over 60% during summer and early fall. Public Library of Science 2014-01-15 /pmc/articles/PMC3893136/ /pubmed/24454772 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084968 Text en © 2014 Nir et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Nir, Orit Gruber, David F. Shemesh, Eli Glasser, Eliezra Tchernov, Dan Seasonal Mesophotic Coral Bleaching of Stylophora pistillata in the Northern Red Sea |
title | Seasonal Mesophotic Coral Bleaching of Stylophora pistillata in the Northern Red Sea |
title_full | Seasonal Mesophotic Coral Bleaching of Stylophora pistillata in the Northern Red Sea |
title_fullStr | Seasonal Mesophotic Coral Bleaching of Stylophora pistillata in the Northern Red Sea |
title_full_unstemmed | Seasonal Mesophotic Coral Bleaching of Stylophora pistillata in the Northern Red Sea |
title_short | Seasonal Mesophotic Coral Bleaching of Stylophora pistillata in the Northern Red Sea |
title_sort | seasonal mesophotic coral bleaching of stylophora pistillata in the northern red sea |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3893136/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24454772 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084968 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT nirorit seasonalmesophoticcoralbleachingofstylophorapistillatainthenorthernredsea AT gruberdavidf seasonalmesophoticcoralbleachingofstylophorapistillatainthenorthernredsea AT shemesheli seasonalmesophoticcoralbleachingofstylophorapistillatainthenorthernredsea AT glassereliezra seasonalmesophoticcoralbleachingofstylophorapistillatainthenorthernredsea AT tchernovdan seasonalmesophoticcoralbleachingofstylophorapistillatainthenorthernredsea |