Widespread variation in heat tolerance and symbiont load are associated with growth tradeoffs in the coral Acropora hyacinthus in Palau

  1. Brendan Cornwell  Is a corresponding author
  2. Katrina Armstrong
  3. Nia S Walker
  4. Marilla Lippert
  5. Victor Nestor
  6. Yimnang Golbuu
  7. Stephen R Palumbi
  1. Department of Biology, Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, United States
  2. Palau International Coral Reef Center, Palau
3 figures, 1 video, 1 table and 4 additional files

Figures

Figure 1 with 2 supplements
Geographic distribution of reefs and bleaching responses after experimental warming.

(A) Map of 39 reef locations surveyed, arranged in groups in the North (blue), West (red), East (green), and South (yellow). Ten reefs that are outlined in purple are at fore reef locations. (B) …

Figure 1—source data 1

Colony by colony bleaching response to experimental warming.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/64790/elife-64790-fig1-data1-v2.csv
Figure 1—figure supplement 1
Range of symbiont cell concentration by visual bleaching score category.

Symbiont cell proportions are highly correlated with visual bleaching score, though there is high variance particularly among colonies with low bleaching scores. Note: Measurements are of all …

Figure 1—figure supplement 1—source data 1

Symbiont density as measured by flow cytometry and visual bleaching score.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/64790/elife-64790-fig1-figsupp1-data1-v2.csv
Figure 1—figure supplement 2
Colonies with high symbiont retention after heat stress tend to have lower levels of symbionts (gray bars), compared to symbiont load across all colonies (blue bars).

Accompanying source data are available as Figure 1—figure supplement 2—source data 1.data.

Figure 1—figure supplement 2—source data 1

Colony by colony symbiont load pre- and post-experimental bleaching.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/64790/elife-64790-fig1-figsupp2-data1-v2.csv
Figure 2 with 4 supplements
Location and prevalence of heat-resistant colonies by reef and region.

(A) Location of corals in the top 25% of values for symbiont retention. See Figure 1A for reef locations. Numbers above each reef label are the number of colonies sampled from that reef. (B) …

Figure 2—source data 1

Reef locations, number of extreme temperature events and proportion of bleaching resistant individuals.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/64790/elife-64790-fig2-data1-v2.csv
Figure 2—figure supplement 1
The percentage of days with temperatures above 30°C, 30.5°C, and 31°C for four regions encompassed by the vertices of the yellow lines.

The fourth location is 0.4° latitude east of the northern squares. The adjacent barplot depicts the percentage of days spent above mean monthly maximum for all four locations outlined on the map. …

Figure 2—figure supplement 1—source data 1

Regional temperature profiles using remote sensing data.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/64790/elife-64790-fig2-figsupp1-data1-v2.xlsx
Figure 2—figure supplement 2
Mean symbiont load of Acropora hyacinthus colonies across Palau.

Average proportion of symbionts in control treatment nubbins at the end of the experiment across the 38 reefs in this study. Accompanying source data are available in Supplementary file 1.

Figure 2—figure supplement 3
Average colony symbiont load (number of symbiont cells per coral cell) averaged across colonies from different reefs.

Colors represent the same areas as in Figure 2. Accompanying source data are available as Figure 2—figure supplement 1, Figure 2—figure supplement 3—source data 1data.

Figure 2—figure supplement 3—source data 1

Mean symbiont load for colonies inhabiting each reef.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/64790/elife-64790-fig2-figsupp3-data1-v2.csv
Figure 2—figure supplement 4
Proportion of heat-resistant colonies on each reef as a function of the number of extreme temperature events, depicting the relationship when the threshold is 31°C, 32°C, 33°C, 34°C, and 35°C (A–E, respectively).

Accompanying source data are available as Figure 2—figure supplement 4—source data 1data.

Figure 2—figure supplement 4—source data 1

Mean number of extreme temperature events recorded at each reef (thressholds 31-35°C).

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/64790/elife-64790-fig2-figsupp4-data1-v2.csv
Relationships between symbiont retention and colony growth to initial symbiont load.

(A) Mean starting symbiont density of A. hyacinthus colonies across Palau is negatively correlated with the fraction of symbionts retained after heat stress. Colonies with lower symbiont population …

Figure 3—source data 1

Colony by colony measurements of symbiont load, retention and growth.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/64790/elife-64790-fig3-data1-v2.csv

Videos

Video 1
Distribution of heat-resistant colonies in Palau.

Animation depicting the approximate locations of bleaching-resistant colonies sampled for this study across the Palauan archipelago.

Tables

Table 1
Comparison of bleaching-resistant and beaching-prone individuals.
ControlHeatedHeatedTemperature
RankSymbiont proportionSymbiont proportionRetentionAvg depthNo. intervals above 31°CNo. intervals above 32°C
Top 25%0.0800.0821.0410.9541703114
Bottom 25%0.1130.0230.221.062171479

Additional files

Supplementary file 1

Physical properties of reefs and average heat retention statistics.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/64790/elife-64790-supp1-v2.xlsx
Supplementary file 2

Temperature extremes by geographic region.

Average percent time spent per reef above 31–35°C (out of 35,764 observations) in the five geographic regions in this study. Values per individual reef can be found in Supplementary file 1.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/64790/elife-64790-supp2-v2.xlsx
Transparent reporting form
https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/64790/elife-64790-transrepform1-v2.docx
Source data 1

Complete_Colony_By_Colony.data.csv.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/64790/elife-64790-supp3-v2.csv

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