Assessing the role of historical temperature regime and algal symbionts on the heat tolerance of coral juveniles.

ABSTRACT: The rate of coral reef degradation from climate change is accelerating and, as a consequence, a number of interventions to increase coral resilience and accelerate recovery are under consideration. Acropora spathulata coral colonies that survived mass bleaching in 2016 and 2017 were sourced from a bleaching-impacted and warmer northern reef on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). These individuals were reproductively crossed with colonies collected from a recently bleached but historically cooler central GBR reef to produce pure and crossbred offspring groups (warm-warm, warm-cool and cool-warm). We tested whether corals from the warmer reef produced more thermally tolerant hybrid and purebred offspring compared with crosses produced with colonies sourced from the cooler reef and whether d

SUBMITTER: Quigley KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6994947 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature