TY - JOUR
T1 - No apparent trade-offs associated with heat tolerance in a reef-building coral
AU - Lachs, Liam
AU - Humanes, Adriana
AU - Pygas, Daniel R.
AU - Bythell, John C.
AU - Mumby, Peter J.
AU - Ferrari, Renata
AU - Figueira, Will F.
AU - Beauchamp, Elizabeth
AU - East, Holly K.
AU - Edwards, Alasdair J.
AU - Golbuu, Yimnang
AU - Martinez, Helios M.
AU - Sommer, Brigitte
AU - van der Steeg, Eveline
AU - Guest, James R.
N1 - Funding information: We thank the numerous staff at the Palau International Coral Reef Centre (PICRC) who supported this research, Dr. Jamie Craggs for contributions to the experimental aquaria system, and Faith Paysinger for work on fecundity measurement. This research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council’s ONE Planet Doctoral Training Partnership (NE/S007512/1) to L.L. and the European Research Council Horizon 2020 project CORALASSIST (725848) awarded to J.R.G. The Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, which funded the time of R.F. on this project.
PY - 2023/4/12
Y1 - 2023/4/12
N2 - As marine species adapt to climate change, their heat tolerance will likely be under strong selection. Yet trade-offs between heat tolerance and other life history traits could compromise natural adaptation or assisted evolution. This is particularly important for ecosystem engineers, such as reef-building corals, which support biodiversity yet are vulnerable to heatwave-induced mass bleaching and mortality. Here, we exposed 70 colonies of the reef-building coral Acropora digitifera to a long-term marine heatwave emulation experiment. We tested for trade-offs between heat tolerance and three traits measured from the colonies in situ – colony growth, fecundity, and symbiont community composition. Despite observing remarkable within-population variability in heat tolerance, all colonies were dominated by Cladocopium C40 symbionts. We found no evidence for trade-offs between heat tolerance and fecundity or growth. Contrary to expectations, positive associations emerged with growth, such that faster-growing colonies tended to bleach and die at higher levels of heat stress. Collectively, our results suggest that these corals exist on an energetic continuum where some high-performing individuals excel across multiple traits. Within populations, trade-offs between heat tolerance and growth or fecundity may not be major barriers to natural adaptation or the success of assisted evolution interventions.
AB - As marine species adapt to climate change, their heat tolerance will likely be under strong selection. Yet trade-offs between heat tolerance and other life history traits could compromise natural adaptation or assisted evolution. This is particularly important for ecosystem engineers, such as reef-building corals, which support biodiversity yet are vulnerable to heatwave-induced mass bleaching and mortality. Here, we exposed 70 colonies of the reef-building coral Acropora digitifera to a long-term marine heatwave emulation experiment. We tested for trade-offs between heat tolerance and three traits measured from the colonies in situ – colony growth, fecundity, and symbiont community composition. Despite observing remarkable within-population variability in heat tolerance, all colonies were dominated by Cladocopium C40 symbionts. We found no evidence for trade-offs between heat tolerance and fecundity or growth. Contrary to expectations, positive associations emerged with growth, such that faster-growing colonies tended to bleach and die at higher levels of heat stress. Collectively, our results suggest that these corals exist on an energetic continuum where some high-performing individuals excel across multiple traits. Within populations, trade-offs between heat tolerance and growth or fecundity may not be major barriers to natural adaptation or the success of assisted evolution interventions.
KW - Animals
KW - Anthozoa
KW - Coral Reefs
KW - Ecosystem
KW - Heat-Shock Response
KW - Thermotolerance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85152319085&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s42003-023-04758-6
DO - 10.1038/s42003-023-04758-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 37046074
SN - 2399-3642
VL - 6
JO - Communications Biology
JF - Communications Biology
IS - 1
M1 - 400
ER -