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Is acclimation beneficial to scleractinian corals, Porites spp.?

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Abstract

With coral reefs impacted by climate change, attention is turning to the extent to which scleractinian corals can acclimatize to new physical conditions. The implicit assumption that acclimatization is beneficial has not been tested for scleractinians, although it has been investigated in other systems and has been referred to as the beneficial acclimation hypothesis (BAH). This study tests this hypothesis for scleractinians in experiments on massive Porites spp. from Moorea, French Polynesia (17° 28.564S, 149° 49.018 W). Corals were acclimated for 15–21 days to three temperatures within the range experienced in the collection habitat and then transferred to each of the same temperatures for a treatment period of 14–15 days. The response of the holobiont was measured as growth, the response of the Symbiodinium populations as maximum photochemical efficiency of open reaction centers II (F v/F m). An ANOVA with polynomial contrasts was used to distinguish among the BAH, three alternative hypotheses and a null hypothesis describing the consequences of acclimation. In the first experiment (2009), massive Porites spp. were unresponsive to temperature. In the second experiment (2013), the BAH was not supported, but growth of the holobiont conformed to the “hotter is better” (HIB) hypothesis; the response of Symbiodinium populations conformed to developmental buffering. These results suggest that acclimation by massive Porites spp. to temperatures experienced routinely in the natural environment does not have clear beneficial value for growth or photochemical efficiency (i.e., BAH was not supported), but they reveal that acclimation to increased temperature can have value in responding to a variety of subsequent temperatures (i.e., support for HIB).

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Acknowledgments

This research was completed with funding from the US National Science Foundation (04-17412, 12-36905, 10-41270) and benefitted from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The work would not have been possible without technical support from V. Moriarty and field assistance from C. M. Cameron, N. Colvard, N. Evensen W. M. Goldenheim, D. H. Green, E. A. Lenz, and A. A. Yarid. Comments from S.R. Dudgeon improved an early draft of this paper. I am grateful to N. Davies and the staff of the Richard B. Gump South Pacific Research Station for making my visits to Moorea productive and enjoyable. This is contribution number 211 of the marine biology program of California State University, Northridge. The author has no competing interests relevant to the research described in this paper.

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  1. Department of Biology, California State University, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA, 91330-8303, USA

    Peter J. Edmunds

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  1. Peter J. Edmunds
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Correspondence to Peter J. Edmunds.

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Communicated by J. Grassle.

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Edmunds, P.J. Is acclimation beneficial to scleractinian corals, Porites spp.?. Mar Biol 161, 1531–1542 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-014-2438-2

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