High heritability of coral calcification rates and evolutionary potential under ocean acidification.

ABSTRACT: Estimates of heritability inform evolutionary potential and the likely outcome of many management actions, but such estimates remain scarce for marine organisms. Here, we report high heritability of calcification rate among the eight most dominant Hawaiian coral species under reduced pH simulating future ocean conditions. Coral colonies were sampled from up to six locations across a natural mosaic in seawater chemistry throughout Hawai'i and fragmented into clonal replicates maintained under both ambient and high pCO₂ conditions. Broad sense heritability of calcification rates was high among all eight species, ranging from a low of 0.32 in Porites evermanni to a high of 0.61 in Porites compressa. The overall results were inconsistent with short-term acclimatization to the local

SUBMITTER: Jury CP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6938506 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature