Thermal and Acidification Gradients Reveal Tolerance Thresholds in Pocillopora acuta Recruits.

ABSTRACT: Ocean warming and acidification are among the biggest threats to the persistence of coral reefs. Organismal stress tolerance thresholds are life stage specific, can vary across levels of biological organisation and also depend on natural environmental variability. Here, we exposed the early life stages of Pocillopora acuta in Kāne'ohe Bay, Hawai'i, USA, a common reef-building coral throughout the Pacific, to projected ocean warming and acidification scenarios. We measured ecological, physiological, biomineralisation and molecular responses across the critical transition from larvae to newly settled recruits following 6 days of exposure to diel fluctuations in temperature and pH in Control (26.8°C-27.9°C, 7.82-7.96 pH_Total), Mid (28.4°C-29.5°C, 7.65-7.79 pH_Total) and H

SUBMITTER: Ashey J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12530294 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature