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A resilient brooding coral in the broadcast spawning Porites lobata species complex: a new endemic, introduced species, mutant, or new adaptive potential?

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Abstract

With increasing exposure to local and global stressors associated with a rapidly changing climate, corals adapted to thrive within stressful environments are of particular interest to researchers and managers. A bleaching resilient Porites coral with an unusual appearance was discovered dominating shallow waters (1–2 m) within Honolulu Harbor, Hawai‘i, a heavily sedimented and polluted habitat with high levels of anthropogenic influence. Continuous monitoring of this ‘Harbor Porites’ revealed prolific year-round brooding and release of planula larvae, with no clear seasonal pattern. Furthermore, recruitment and rapid growth were observed in seawater tanks followed by fusing of various sized colonies, indicating brooding of clonal larvae. Genetic markers placed this coral with high similarity (histone and ITS sequences are 99.9% and 99.4% similar, respectively) to corals in the P. lobata species complex which are gonochoric broadcast spawning corals. Fixed differences were observed, and FST values were high and significant, which could either be explained by reproductive isolation or from clonal sampling over a limited area (this coral has not yet been found in other locations). Observations of skeletal microstructure also showed similarity to corals in the P. lobata complex, although with a higher proportion of corallites with excavated columella resulting in a cavity similar in size to the brooded larvae. These observations suggest that bleaching resilience and reproductive mode may be more plastic than previously assumed for Porites corals. Additional work is needed to determine if these corals represent a very recent endemic species, an introduced coral, the result of reproductive disruption from pollution (e.g., endocrine disruption), or extreme phenotypic variation within the P. lobata complex. Prolific growth and production of larvae, combined with observations of resilience to anthropogenic impacts such as bleaching, sedimentation, and pollution, make this coral a good candidate model for the study of adaptation and acclimatization to climate change and other anthropogenic stressors.

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Acknowledgements

Authors wish to thank Dr. Doug Fenner for his skeletal analysis, Dr. James WA Murphy for his diving expertise, Kalei Nu‘uhiwa for nomenclature assistance, and the staff at the DAR coral facility on Sand Island, Norton Chan, Chelsea Wolke, David Gulko, and Brian Neilson. The authors wish to acknowledge The Kohala Center, Kamehameha Schools, Dr. Paul and Elizabeth Nakayama and the Deviants from the Norm Fund for providing funding for NPS. Colony collection was made possible under Hawai‘i Division of Aquatic Resources SAP 2016-66 and SAP 2018-17. This is HIMB contribution #1791 and SOEST #10931. The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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Author notes

  1. Kaho T. Tisthammer

    Present address: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kewalo Marine Laboratory, Pacific Biosciences Research Center/University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, USA

    Narrissa P. Brown, Kaho T. Tisthammer & Robert H. Richmond

  2. US Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office, Honolulu, USA

    Narrissa P. Brown

  3. Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, USA

    Zac H. Forsman

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  1. Narrissa P. Brown
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Correspondence to Zac H. Forsman.

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Brown, N.P., Forsman, Z.H., Tisthammer, K.T. et al. A resilient brooding coral in the broadcast spawning Porites lobata species complex: a new endemic, introduced species, mutant, or new adaptive potential?. Coral Reefs 39, 809–818 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-01922-w

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