Photophysiology of a mesophotic coral 3 years after transplantation to a shallow environment

Coral Reefs volume 39, pages903–913(2020)Cite this article

Abstract

With shallow coral reefs suffering from an ongoing rapid decline in many regions of the world, the interest in studies on mesophotic coral ecosystems (30–150 m) is growing rapidly. While most photoacclimation responses in corals were documented within the upper 30 m of reefs, in the present study we transplanted fragments of a strictly mesophotic species from the Red Sea, Euphyllia paradivisa, from 50 m to 5 m for a period of 3 years. Following the retrieval of the corals, their physiological and photosynthetic properties of the corals were tested. The transplanted corals presented evidence of photosynthetic acclimation to the shallow habitat, lower sensitivity to photoinhibition, and a high survival percentage, while also demonstrating a reduced ability to utilize low light compared to their mesophotic counterparts. This long-term successful transplantation from a mesophotic depth to a shallow habitat has provided us with insights regarding the ability of mesophotic corals and their symbionts to survive and withstand shallow environments, dominated by a completely different light regime. The extensive characterization of the photobiology of E. paradivisa, and its photoacclimation response to a high-light environment also demonstrates the plasticity of corals and point out to mechanisms different than those reported previously in shallower corals.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat (IUI) for logistical support and making their facilities available to us. We thank M. Fine and his lab for assisting us with the Imaging-PAM measurements and I. Cohen for his assistance in analyzing the respiration metabolic chambers results. We are grateful to the Marine Photosynthesis Course in the IUI for their contribution to the final stage of this research. We also thank N. Paz for her proofreading and the anonymous reviewers for their much-appreciated comments.

Funding

Funding was provided by the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 1191/16), Ministry of Science and Technology, Israel (Grant No. 3-18487), European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie (Grant No. 796025).

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Author notes

  1. Or Ben-Zvi and Raz Tamir have contributed equally to this work.

Affiliations

  1. School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Or Ben-Zvi, Raz Tamir & Yossi Loya

  2. The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat, Eilat, Israel

    Or Ben-Zvi, Raz Tamir & Tal Benaltabet

  3. The Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Nir Keren

  4. The Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Dan Tchernov & Ilana Berman-Frank

  5. Applied Physics Department and The Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Yuval Kolodny

  6. Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Tal Benaltabet

  7. Department of Soil and Water Sciences, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel

    Harel Bavli

  8. Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Mor Friedman

  9. Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel

    Noga Glanz-Idan

  10. School of Mechanical Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Hadar Traugott

  11. ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia

    Gal Eyal

  12. The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Gal Eyal

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  1. Or Ben-Zvi
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Correspondence to Or Ben-Zvi or Raz Tamir or Gal Eyal.

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Ben-Zvi, O., Tamir, R., Keren, N. et al. Photophysiology of a mesophotic coral 3 years after transplantation to a shallow environment. Coral Reefs 39, 903–913 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-01910-0

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Keywords

  • Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs)
  • Euphyllia paradivisa
  • Photosynthesis
  • Photoacclimation
  • Photophysiology