Dr. Kerri L. Dobson
Dobson KL, Ferrier-Pagès C, Saup C, Grottoli AG (2021) The effects of temperature, light, and feeding on the physiology of Pocillopora damicornis, Stylophora pistillata, and Turbinaria reniformis corals. Water Special Issue: Climate Impact on Sustainability of Aquatic Organisms, 13(15): 2048 https://doi.org/10.3390/w13152048
We aimed to evaluate if simultaneous low light and feeding would mitigate, minimize, or exacerbate negative effects of elevated temperature on the physiology and carbon budgets of Pocillopora damicornis, Stylophora pistillata, and Turbinaria reniformis.
Overall, low light and feeding did not act synergistically, nor additively, to mitigate the negative effects of elevated temperature on P. damicornis, S. pistillata, or T. reniformis. However, feeding alone was critical to the maintenance of metabolic demand at elevated temperature, suggesting that sufficient supply of heterotrophic food sources is likely essential for corals during thermal stress (bleaching) events.
Dobson KL, Levas S, Schoepf V, Warner ME, Cai W-J, Hoadley K, Yuan X, Matsui Y, Melman TF, Grottoli AG (2021) Moderate nutrients are not detrimental to corals under future ocean conditions. Marine Biology, 168(7): http://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-021-03901-3
We evaluated if moderate nutrients mitigate, minimize, or exacerbate negative effects of predicted future ocean conditions on Acropora millepora and Turbinaria reniformis physiology.
Added nitrate was taken up by the algal endosymbionts and transferred to the coral hosts in both species, though to a much higher degree in A. millepora. When exposed to elevated temperature, elevated pCO2, or both, effects observed for chlorophyll a, calcification, biomass, and energy reserves were not compounded by the moderate nutrient concentrations in either species. Moderate nutrients enabled A. millepora to continue to meet daily metabolic demand via photosynthesis under predicted future ocean conditions and T. reniformis to greatly exceed daily metabolic demand via photosynthesis and heterotrophy.
McLachlan RH, Dobson KL, Schmeltzer ER, Vega Thurber R, Grottoli AG (2021) A review of
coral bleaching specimen collection, preservation, and laboratory processing methods. Peer J,
9:e11763, http://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11763
Grottoli A, Toonen R, van Woesik R, Vega Thurber R, Warner M, McLachlan R, Price J, Bahr
K, Baums I, Castillo K, Coffroth MA, Cunning R, Dobson KL, Donahue M, Hench J, Iglesias-
Prieto R, Kemp D, Kenkel C, Kline D, Kuffner I, Matthews J, Mayfield A, Padilla-Gamino J,
Palumbi S, Voolstra C, Weis V, Wu H (2021) Increasing comparability among coral bleaching
experiments. Ecological Applications, 31(4): http://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2262
© 2021 by Kerri Dobson.
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