Coral garden conservation and restoration: how host taxon and ex-situ maintenance affect the microbiome of soft and hard corals.

ABSTRACT: Temperate coral gardens are dense coral formations, which support rich marine species diversity, enabling benthic-pelagic coupling. Over the past decades, coral gardens have been increasingly threatened by bottom fishing, oil and gas exploitation, and climate change. Microbiome research bears great potential for assisted resilience in targeted conservation and restoration approaches. Yet, fundamental parameters of the coral garden microbiome remain poorly understood. Here, we provide a first broad record of bacterial communities associated with NE Atlantic coral garden corals and their community changes as response to human maintenance in conservation research. Octocorals (10 species), scleractinians (2 species) and one black coral species, were opportunistically collected from fisheries b

SUBMITTER: Rola M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12364619 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature