Highly conserved thermal performance strategies may limit adaptive potential in corals.

ABSTRACT: Increasing seawater temperatures are expected to have profound consequences for reef-building corals' physiology. Understanding how demography changes in response to chronic exposure to warming will help forecast how coral communities will respond to climate change. Here, we measure growth rates of coral fragments of four common species, while exposing them to temperatures ranging from 19°C to 31°C for one month to calibrate their thermal-performance curves (TPCs). Our results show that, while there are contrasting differences between species, the shape of the TPCs was remarkably consistent among individuals of the same species. The low variation in thermal sensitivity within species may imply a reduced capacity for rapid adaptive responses to future changes in thermal regimes. Additionall

SUBMITTER: Alvarez-Noriega M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9832572 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature