Increased dominance of heat-tolerant symbionts creates resilient coral reefs in near-term ocean warming.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is radically altering coral reef ecosystems, mainly through increasingly frequent and severe bleaching events. Yet, some reefs have exhibited higher thermal tolerance after bleaching severely the first time. To understand changes in thermal tolerance in the eastern tropical Pacific (ETP), we compiled four decades of temperature, coral cover, coral bleaching, and mortality data, including three mass bleaching events during the 1982 to 1983, 1997 to 1998 and 2015 to 2016 El Niño heatwaves. Higher heat resistance in later bleaching events was detected in the dominant framework-building genus, Pocillopora, while other coral taxa exhibited similar susceptibility across events. Genetic analyses of Pocillopora spp. colonies and their algal symbionts (2014 to 20

SUBMITTER: Palacio-Castro AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9974440 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature