Successive responses of three coral holobiont components (coral hosts, symbiotic algae, and bacteria) to daily temperature fluctuations

Abstract

Coral reef ecosystems support over a quarter of the worlds marine life and play important ecological and economic roles. However, the increasingly severe weather events associated with ocean warming and climate change are believed to be rapidly altering the functions of coral reefs and their ecosystems. Corals and their associated microbiota form a "holobiont," which includes symbiotic algae and other associated microbiota dominated by bacteria. These microbiota have a direct relationship with the health of the coral host. Their composition is influenced by various environmental factors, such as increasing sea water temperatures. Previous studies of the effects of temperature changes on coral physiology and associated bacterial communities have been conducted based on stable water temperatures set by mean temperatures, or by slowly increasing/decreasing temperatures. However, the daily temperature fluctuations that corals experience in nature are not stable. Rather, there may be significant differences of up to 6{degrees}C in a single day. The current understanding of the effects of large daily temperature fluctuations on coral and associated bacterial community dynamics is limited. Hence, in this study, we conducted a four-week tank experiment using different large daily temperature fluctuations accompanied by continuous warming conditions to investigate the effects on two common reef-building corals, Stylophora pistillata and Pocillopora acuta, in Taiwan. During the experiment, the activity of coral host catalase was measured, the photosynthetic ability of symbiotic algae was recorded, and the variation in bacterial communities was analyzed using the V6-V8 region of 16S rDNA. According to the results, different parts of the holobionts of different coral species exhibited varying response rates to the continuous warming conditions and diurnal temperature fluctuations. Additionally, it was found that diurnal temperature fluctuations may mitigate the heat stress on the host and reduce the changes in bacterial response to warming. Furthermore, the holobionts of different coral species may adopt different adaptation and survival strategies in response to diurnal temperature fluctuations and warming. Finally, based on the response of these two coral species under the conditions of diurnal temperature fluctuations and continuous warming, Acinetobacter and Rhodobacteraceae were identified as potential indicator coral-associated bacteria. This is the first study to investigate the tripartite dynamic response of coral, symbiotic algae and bacteria to daily temperature fluctuations.