Coral Community Composition Linked to Hypoxia Exposure.

Tropical reef ecosystems are strongly influenced by the composition of coral species, but the factors influencing coral diversity and distributions are not fully understood. Here we demonstrate that large variations in the relative abundance of three major coral species across adjacent Caribbean reef sites are strongly related to their different low O2 tolerances. In laboratory experiments designed to mimic reef conditions, the cumulative effect of repeated nightly low O2 drove coral bleaching and mortality, with limited modulation by temperature. After four nights of repeated low O2, species responses also varied widely, from > 50% bleaching in Acropora cervicornis to no discernable sensitivity of Porites furcata. A simple metric of hypoxic pressure that combines these experimentally derived species sensitivities with high-resolution field data accurately predicts the observed relative abundance of species across three reefs. Only the well-oxygenated reef supported the framework-building hypoxia-sensitive Acropora cervicornis, while the hypoxia-tolerant weedy species Porites furcata was dominant on the most frequently O2-deplete reef. Physiological exclusion of acroporids from these O2-deplete reefs underscores the need for hypoxia management to reduce extirpation risk.

Host-associated microbiomes drive structure and function of marine ecosystems.

The significance of symbioses between eukaryotic hosts and microbes extends from the organismal to the ecosystem level and underpins the health of Earth's most threatened marine ecosystems. Despite rapid growth in research on host-associated microbes, from individual microbial symbionts to host-associated consortia of significantly relevant taxa, little is known about their interactions with the vast majority of marine host species. We outline research priorities to strengthen our current knowledge of host-microbiome interactions and how they shape marine ecosystems. We argue that such advances in research will help predict responses of species, communities, and ecosystems to stressors driven by human activity and inform future management strategies.

Integrative Approaches to Understanding Organismal Responses to Aquatic Deoxygenation.

AbstractOxygen bioavailability is declining in aquatic systems worldwide as a result of climate change and other anthropogenic stressors. For aquatic organisms, the consequences are poorly known but are likely to reflect both direct effects of declining oxygen bioavailability and interactions between oxygen and other stressors, including two-warming and acidification-that have received substantial attention in recent decades and that typically accompany oxygen changes. Drawing on the collected papers in this symposium volume ("An Oxygen Perspective on Climate Change"), we outline the causes and consequences of declining oxygen bioavailability. First, we discuss the scope of natural and predicted anthropogenic changes in aquatic oxygen levels. Although modern organisms are the result of long evolutionary histories during which they were exposed to natural oxygen regimes, anthropogenic change is now exposing them to more extreme conditions and novel combinations of low oxygen with other stressors. Second, we identify behavioral and physiological mechanisms that underlie the interactive effects of oxygen with other stressors, and we assess the range of potential organismal responses to oxygen limitation that occur across levels of biological organization and over multiple timescales. We argue that metabolism and energetics provide a powerful and unifying framework for understanding organism-oxygen interactions. Third, we conclude by outlining a set of approaches for maximizing the effectiveness of future work, including focusing on long-term experiments using biologically realistic variation in experimental factors and taking truly cross-disciplinary and integrative approaches to understanding and predicting future effects.

Oxygen-mediated plasticity confers hypoxia tolerance in a corallivorous polychaete.

There is mounting evidence that the deoxygenation of coastal marine ecosystems has been underestimated, particularly in the tropics. These physical conditions appear to have far-reaching consequences for marine communities and have been associated with mass mortalities. Yet little is known about hypoxia in tropical habitats or about the effects it has on reef-associated benthic organisms. We explored patterns of dissolved oxygen (DO) throughout Almirante Bay, Panama and found a hypoxic gradient, with areas closest to the mainland having the largest diel variation in DO, as well as more frequent persistent hypoxia. We then designed a laboratory experiment replicating the most extreme in situ DO regime found on shallow patch reefs (3 m) to assess the response of the corallivorous fireworm, Hermodice carnaculata to hypoxia. Worms were exposed to hypoxic conditions (8 hr ~ 1 mg/L or 3.2 kPa) 16 times over an 8-week period, and at 4 and 8 weeks, their oxygen consumption (respiration rates) was measured upon reoxygenation, along with regrowth of severed gills. Exposure to low DO resulted in worms regenerating significantly larger gills compared to worms under normoxia. This response to low DO was coupled with an ability to maintain elevated oxygen consumption/respiration rates after low DO exposure. In contrast, worms from the normoxic treatment had significantly depressed respiration rates after being exposed to low DO (week 8). This indicates that oxygen-mediated plasticity in both gill morphology and physiology may confer tolerance to increasingly frequent and severe hypoxia in one important coral predator associated with reef decline.

An in situ assessment of local adaptation in a calcifying polychaete from a shallow CO2 vent system.

Ocean acidification (OA) is likely to exert selective pressure on natural populations. Our ability to predict which marine species will adapt to OA and what underlies this adaptive potential is of high conservation and resource management priority. Using a naturally low-pH vent site in the Mediterranean Sea (Castello Aragonese, Ischia) mirroring projected future OA conditions, we carried out a reciprocal transplant experiment to investigate the relative importance of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation in two populations of the sessile, calcifying polychaete Simplaria sp. (Annelida, Serpulidae, Spirorbinae): one residing in low pH and the other from a nearby ambient (i.e. high) pH site. We measured a suite of fitness-related traits (i.e. survival, reproductive output, maturation, population growth) and tube growth rates in laboratory-bred F2 generation individuals from both populations reciprocally transplanted back into both ambient and low-pH in situ habitats. Both populations showed lower expression in all traits, but increased tube growth rates, when exposed to low-pH compared with high-pH conditions, regardless of their site of origin suggesting that local adaptation to low-pH conditions has not occurred. We also found comparable levels of plasticity in the two populations investigated, suggesting no influence of long-term exposure to low pH on the ability of populations to adjust their phenotype. Despite high variation in trait values among sites and the relatively extreme conditions at the low pH site (pH < 7.36), response trends were consistent across traits. Hence, our data suggest that, for Simplaria and possibly other calcifiers, neither local adaptations nor sufficient phenotypic plasticity levels appear to suffice in order to compensate for the negative impacts of OA on long-term survival. Our work also emphasizes the utility of field experiments in natural environments subjected to high level of pCO 2 for elucidating the potential for adaptation to future scenarios of OA.