Modeling environmentally-mediated variation in reef coral physiology

[2019]

Increases in seawater temperature associated with global climate change are breaking down the mutualistic relationship between reef-building corals and the symbiotic dinoflagellates that reside within their cells. This work sought to uncover the environmental factors that contribute most to observed spatio-temporal variation in coral physiology and devise means of detecting anomalous behavior in field corals.

Published in Journal of Sea Research, March 2019

By Anderson Mayfield, Alexandra Dempsey, and Chii-Shiarng Chen

Abstract

Increases in seawater temperature associated with global climate change are causing the mutualistic relationship between reef-building corals and the symbiotic dinoflagellates (genus Symbiodinium) that reside within their cells to break down. There is consequently an urgent need to develop tools for modeling coral biology in response to environmental shifts, an enterprise that is complicated by the fact that no pristine reefs remain on Earth. This work sought to 1) uncover the environmental factors that contribute most to observed spatio-temporal variation in coral physiology and 2) devise means of detecting anomalous behavior in field corals by analyzing a dataset from the Austral (French Polynesia) and Cook Islands of the South Pacific with a multivariate statistical approach. Upon employing this multi-tiered analytical platform, host genotype was found to be the most significant driver of variation in physiology of the pocilloporid coral colonies sampled across the two archipelagos. Furthermore, those colonies demonstrating the most extensive variation across the seven response variables assessed tended to deviate most significantly from the global mean response calculated across all samples, suggesting that high within-sample physiological variability may be one means of delineating aberrant coral behavior in the absence of data from pristine control reefs.

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Some students I remember for their grades, their quick answers, or a moment that made the whole class laugh. Others I remember for the way they stepped into the mangroves.

Desta was the kind of student who thrived outdoors. While some students hesitated at the edge of the mud, he walked right in. And when he inevitably got stuck — because everyone does — he didn’t get frustrated. He laughed. Covered in mud, holding mangrove propagules in his hands, he embraced the experience fully.

Even then, it was clear that he was connecting with the environment in a way that went beyond the lesson plan…

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There are certain faces you never forget.

Over the years, hundreds of students have stepped into mangrove forests with us through the Jamaica Awareness of Mangroves in Nature (J.A.M.I.N.) program. I may not always remember every name, but I remember the expressions — the hesitation before stepping into thick mud, the laughter when someone loses a shoe, the look of surprise when they catch that unmistakable sulfur smell rising from the mangrove soil…

Abstract

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