Biomarker profiling in reef corals of Tonga's Ha'apai and Vava'u archipelagos.

ABSTRACT: Given the significant threats towards Earth's coral reefs, there is an urgent need to document the current physiological condition of the resident organisms, particularly the reef-building scleractinians themselves. Unfortunately, most of the planet's reefs are understudied, and some have yet to be seen. For instance, the Kingdom of Tonga possesses an extensive reef system, with thousands of hectares of unobserved reefs; little is known about their ecology, nor is there any information on the health of the resident corals. Given such knowledge deficiencies, 59 reefs across three Tongan archipelagos were surveyed herein, and pocilloporid corals were sampled from approximately half of these surveyed sites; 10 molecular-scale response variable were assessed in 88 of the sampled colonies, and

SUBMITTER: Mayfield AB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5665425 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature