Hannah Rachel Babbitz

Manipulation of Acropora Tissue Properties and Resulting Changes in Physiology and Thermal Tolerance

2022

University of Miami

University of Miami

"Factors of global climate change, such as ocean warming, have led to unprecedented decline in coral reef habitats. The loss of coral reefs across the globe is an alarming issue that many reef restoration practitioners face, fueling efforts to restore reef ecosystems. Preparing corals to withstand environmental stressors has become an important area of research. It has previously been shown that heterotrophy helps corals cope with adverse conditions associated with global climate change. In order to test whether exposure to greater food availability in the lab can lead to more-thermally tolerant corals, we subjected 51 fragments of Acropora cervicornis to two feeding treatments for a period of 2 months, and then exposed them to an acute temperature assay. Lipid concentration, calcification, vertical growth, and photosynthetic yield were measured on a weekly basis. Corals in both the high and low feeding treatments showed a significant decrease in lipid content from initial concentration. Final lipid concentration between treatments was not significantly different. Feeding treatment did not have a significant influence on growth rates, photosynthetic yield, or survivability at high temperatures. These data reveal that our feeding treatments did not enhance the lipid content or thermal tolerances of A. cervicornis, suggesting that feeding may not be a method of enhancing heat stress survivability in these corals."

coral, lipid, thermal stress, Acropora, energy, climate change

OAR

AOML

FY2022 CRCP Project ID 31256; Project Title: Evaluation of mechanisms to increase resilience of outplanted coral fragments; Principal Investigator: Ian Enochs