Contrasting seasonal responses in dinitrogen fixation between shallow and deep-water colonies of the model coral Stylophora pistillata in the northern Red Sea

Tropical corals are often associated with dinitrogen (N(2))-fixing bacteria (diazotrophs), and seasonal changes in key environmental parameters, such as dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) availability and seawater temperature, are known to affect N(2) fixation in coral-microbial holobionts. Despite, then, such potential for seasonal and depth-related changes in N(2) fixation in reef corals, such variation has not yet been investigated. Therefore, this study quantified seasonal (winter vs. summer) N(2) fixation rates associated with the reef-building coral Stylophora pistillata collected from depths of 5, 10 and 20 m in the northern Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea). Findings revealed that corals from all depths exhibited the highest N(2) fixation rates during the oligotrophic summer season, when up to 11% of their photo-metabolic nitrogen demand (CPND) could be met by N(2) fixation. While N(2) fixation remained seasonally stable for deep corals (20 m), it significantly decreased for the shallow corals (5 and 10 m) during the DIN-enriched winter season, accounting for less than 2% of the corals’ CPND. This contrasting seasonal response in N(2) fixation across corals of different depths could be driven by 1) release rates of coral-derived organic matter, 2) the community composition of the associated diazotrophs, and/or 3) nutrient acquisition by the Symbiodinium community.