Small-scale environmental variation influences whether coral-dwelling fish promote or impede coral growth.

Mutualistic symbioses are ubiquitous in nature and facilitate high biodiversity and productivity of ecosystems by enhancing the efficiency of energy and nutrient use within ecological communities. For example, small groups of fish that inhabit coral colonies in reef ecosystems potentially enhance coral growth through defense from coral predators, aeration of coral tissue and nutrient provisioning. This study examines whether the prevalence and consequences of fish-coral interactions vary among sites with different environmental conditions in a coral reef lagoon, using the humbug damselfish Dascyllus aruanus and its preferred coral host Pocillopora damicornis as a study system. Using a field experiment, we tested the site-specific effects of D. aruanus on coral growth, and show that the cost-benefit ratio for corals hosting fish varies with local environmental variation. Results of this study also demonstrate that fish prefer to inhabit coral colonies with particular branch-spacing characteristics, and that the local abundance of D. aruanus influences the proportion of coral colonies within a site that are occupied by fish rather than increasing the number of fish per colony. We also show that corals consistently benefit from hosting D. aruanus via defense from predation by corallivorous butterflyfish, regardless of local environmental conditions. These findings highlight the need to consider the potential for multiple scale- and state-dependent interaction effects when examining the ecology of fish-coral associations. We suggest that fluctuating cost-benefit ratios for species interactions may contribute to the maintenance of different colony phenotypes within coral populations.

Coral-seeding devices with fish-exclusion features reduce mortality on the Great Barrier Reef.

Restoration methods that seed juvenile corals show promise as scalable interventions to promote population persistence through anthropogenic warming. However, challenges including predation by fishes can threaten coral survival. Coral-seeding devices with refugia from fishes offer potential solutions to limit predation-driven mortality. In an 8-month field study, we assessed the efficacy of such devices for increasing the survival of captive-reared Acropora digitifera (spat and microfragments) over control devices (featureless and caged). Devices with fish-exclusion features demonstrated a twofold increase in coral survival, while most corals seeded without protection suffered mortality within 48 h. Overall, spat faced more grazing and higher mortality compared to microfragments, and upward-facing corals were more vulnerable than side-facing corals. Grazing-induced mortality varied by site, with lower activity in locations abundant in mat-forming cyanobacteria or Scleractinian corals. Many scraping parrotfish were found feeding on or near the seeded corals; however, bites by Scarus globiceps explained the most site-related variation in grazing. Cyanobacteria may be preferred over corals as a nutritional resource for scraping parrotfish-advancing our understanding of their foraging ecology. Incorporating side-facing refugia in seeding devices and deploying to sites with nutrient-rich food sources for fish are potential strategies to enhance coral survival in restoration programs.

Among-sibling differences in the phenotypes of juvenile fish depend on their location within the egg mass and maternal dominance rank.

We investigated whether among-sibling differences in the phenotypes of juvenile fish were systematically related to the position in the egg mass where each individual developed during oogenesis. We sampled eggs from the front, middle and rear thirds of the egg mass in female brown trout of known dominance rank. In the resulting juveniles, we then measured traits that are related to individual fitness: body size, social status and standard metabolic rate (SMR). When controlling for differences among females in mean egg size, siblings from dominant mothers were initially larger (and had a lower mass-corrected SMR) if they developed from eggs at the rear of the egg mass. However, heterogeneity in the size of siblings from different positions in the egg mass diminished in lower-ranking females. Location of the egg within the egg mass also affected the social dominance of the resulting juvenile fish, although the direction of this effect varied with developmental age. This study provides the first evidence of a systematic basis for among-sibling differences in the phenotypes of offspring in a highly fecund organism.

Implantation of cocoa butter reduces egg and hatchling size in Salmo trutta.

This study demonstrated that, irrespective of hormone type or dose, administering cocoa butter implants during egg development affected the growth of female brown trout Salmo trutta and reduced the size of their offspring. Cortisol treatment also increased adult mortality. Caution is urged in the use of implants for studies of maternal hormonal influences on adult fishes and their offspring.

Effects of suspended coal particles on gill structure and oxygen consumption rates in a coral reef fish.

Large quantities of coal are transported through tropical regions; however, little is known about the sub-lethal effects of coal contamination on tropical marine organisms, including fish. Here, we measured aerobic metabolism and gill morphology in a planktivorous coral reef damselfish, Acanthochromis polyacanthus to elucidate the sub-lethal effects of suspended coal particles over a range of coal concentrations and exposure durations. Differences in the standard oxygen consumption rates (MO2) between control fish and fish exposed to coal particles (38 and 73 mg L-1) were minimal and generally not dose dependent; however, the MO2 of fish exposed to 38 mg coal L-1 (21 days) and 73 mg coal L-1 (31 days) were both significantly higher than the MO2 of control fish. Chronic coal exposure (31 days) altered gill structure in the higher coal treatments (73 and 275 mg L-1), with fish exposed to 275 mg L-1 exhibiting significant reductions in gill mucous and thinning of lamellar and filament epithelium. These findings contribute to our limited understanding of the potential impacts of coal on tropical reef species; however, most of the observed effects occurred at high coal concentrations that are unlikely under most coal spill scenarios. Future studies should investigate other contamination scenarios such as the impacts of chronic exposures to lower concentrations of coal.

Damselfishes alleviate the impacts of sediments on host corals.

Mutualisms play a critical role in ecological communities; however, the importance and prevalence of mutualistic associations can be modified by external stressors. On coral reefs, elevated sediment deposition can be a major stressor reducing the health of corals and reef resilience. Here, we investigated the influence of severe sedimentation on the mutualistic relationship between small damselfishes (Pomacentrus moluccensis and Dascyllus aruanus) and their coral host (Pocillopora damicornis). In an aquarium experiment, corals were exposed to sedimentation rates of approximately 100 mg cm-2 d-1, with and without fishes present, to test whether: (i) fishes influence the accumulation of sediments on coral hosts, and (ii) fishes moderate partial colony mortality and/or coral tissue condition. Colonies with fishes accumulated much less sediment compared with colonies without fishes, and this effect was strongest for colonies with D. aruanus (fivefold less sediment than controls) as opposed to P. moluccensis (twofold less sediment than controls). Colonies with symbiont fishes also had up to 10-fold less sediment-induced partial mortality, as well as higher chlorophyll and protein concentrations. These results demonstrate that fish mutualisms vary in the strength of their benefits, and indicate that some mutualistic or facilitative interactions might become more important for species health and resilience at high-stress levels.

Thermal performance of scleractinian corals along a latitudinal gradient on the Great Barrier Reef.

Species have evolved different mechanisms to cope with spatial and temporal temperature variability. Species with broad geographical distributions may be thermal generalists that perform well across a broad range of temperatures, or they might contain subpopulations of locally adapted thermal specialists. We quantified the variation in thermal performance of two coral species, Porites cylindrica and Acropora spp., along a latitudinal gradient over which temperature varies by approximately 6°C. Photosynthesis rates, respiration rates, maximum quantum yield and maximum electron transport rates were measured on coral fragments exposed to an acute temperature increase and decrease up to 5°C above and below the local average temperature. Results showed geographical variation in the performance curves of both species at holobiont and symbiont level, but this did not lead to an alignment of the optimal temperature for performance with the average temperature of the local environment, suggesting suboptimal coral performance of these coral populations in summer. Furthermore, symbiont thermal performance generally had an optimum closer to the average environmental temperature than holobiont performance, suggesting that symbionts have a higher capacity for acclimatization than the coral host, and can aid the coral host when temperatures are unfavourable. This article is part of the theme issue 'Physiological diversity, biodiversity patterns and global climate change: testing key hypotheses involving temperature and oxygen'.

Coral-dwelling fish moderate bleaching susceptibility of coral hosts.

Global environmental change has the potential to disrupt well established species interactions, with impacts on nutrient cycling and ecosystem function. On coral reefs, fish living within the branches of coral colonies can promote coral performance, and it has been hypothesized that the enhanced water flow and nutrients provided by fish to corals could ameliorate coral bleaching. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of small, aggregating damselfish on the health of their host corals (physiology, recovery, and survival) before, during, and after a thermal-bleaching event. When comparing coral colonies with and without fish, those with resident fish exhibited higher Symbiodinium densities and chlorophyll in both field and experimentally-induced bleaching conditions, and higher protein concentrations in field colonies. Additionally, colonies with damselfish in aquaria exhibited both higher photosynthetic efficiency (FV/FM) during bleaching stress and post-bleaching recovery, compared to uninhabited colonies. These results demonstrate that symbiotic damselfishes, and the services they provide, translate into measureable impacts on coral tissue, and can influence coral bleaching susceptibility/resilience and recovery. By mediating how external abiotic stressors influence coral colony health, damselfish can affect the functional responses of these interspecific interactions in a warming ocean.

Predation scars may influence host susceptibility to pathogens: evaluating the role of corallivores as vectors of coral disease.

Infectious diseases not regulated by host density, such as vector-borne diseases, have the potential to drive population declines and extinctions. Here we test the vector potential of the snail Drupella sp. and butterflyfish Chaetodon plebeius for two coral diseases, black band (BBD) and brown band (BrB) disease. Drupella transmitted BrB to healthy corals in 40% of cases immediately following feeding on infected corals, and even in 12% of cases 12 and 24 hours following feeding. However, Drupella was unable to transmit BBD in either transmission treatment. In a field experiment testing the vector potential of naturally-occurring fish assemblages, equivalent numbers of caged and uncaged coral fragments became infected with either BrB, BBD or skeletal eroding band, indicating that corallivorous fish were unlikely to have caused transmission. In aquaria, C. plebeius did not transmit either BBD or BrB, even following extended feeding on both infected and healthy nubbins. A literature review confirmed only four known coral disease vectors, all invertebrates, corroborating our conclusion that polyp-feeding fishes are unlikely to be vectors of coral diseases. This potentially because polyp-feeding fishes produce shallow lesions, not allowing pathogens to invade coral tissues. In contrast, corallivorous invertebrates that create deeper feeding scars increase pathogens transmission.