Rapid Evolution in Action: Environmental Filtering Supports Coral Adaptation to a Hot, Acidic, and Deoxygenated Extreme Habitat.

ABSTRACT: The semienclosed Bouraké lagoon in New Caledonia is a natural system that enables observation of evolution in action with respect to stress tolerance in marine organisms, a topic directly relevant to understanding the consequences of global climate change. Corals inhabiting the Bouraké lagoon endure extreme conditions of elevated temperature (> 33°C), acidification (7.2 pH units), and deoxygenation (2.28 mg O2 L-1), which fluctuate with the tide due to the lagoon's geomorphology. To investigate the underlying bases of the apparent stress tolerance of these corals, we combined whole genome resequencing of the coral host and ITS2 metabarcoding of the photosymbionts from 90 Acropora tenuis colonies from three localities along the steep environmental gradient from Bouraké to two nearby control

SUBMITTER: Leiva C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11874183 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature