Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Effect of acclimatization to low temperature and reduced light on the response of reef corals to elevated temperature

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Marine Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study tested the effects of acclimatization on the response of corals to elevated temperature, using juvenile massive Porites spp. and branching P. irregularis from Moorea (W149°50′, S17°30′). During April and May 2006, corals were acclimatized for 15 days to cool (25.7°C) or ambient (27.7°C) temperature, under shaded (352 μmol photons m−2 s−1) or ambient (554 μmol photons m−2 s−1) natural light, and then incubated for 7 days at ambient or high temperature (31.1°C), under ambient light (659 μmol photons m−2 s−1). The response to acclimatization was assessed as biomass, maximum dark-adapted quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm), and growth, and the effect of the subsequent treatment was assessed as Fv/Fm and growth. Relative to the controls (i.e., ambient temperature/ambient light), massive Porites spp. responded to acclimatization through increases in biomass under ambient temperature/shade, and low temperature/ambient light, whereas P. irregularis responded through reduced growth under ambient temperature/shade, and low temperature/ambient light. Acclimatization affected the response to thermal stress for massive Porites spp. (but not P. irregularis), with an interaction between the acclimatization and subsequent treatments for growth. This interaction resulted from a lessening of the negative effects of high temperature after acclimatizing to ambient temperature/shade, but an accentuation of the effect after acclimatizing to low temperature/shade. It is possible that changes in biomass for massive Porites spp. are important in modulating the response to high temperature, with the taxonomic variation in this effect potentially resulting from differences in morphology. These results demonstrate that corals can acclimatize during short exposures to downward excursions in temperature and light, which subsequently affects their response to thermal stress. Moreover, even con-generic taxa differ in this capacity, which could affect coral community structure.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anthony KRN, Hoegh-Guldberg O (2003) Variation in coral photosynthesis, respiration and growth characteristics in contrasting light microhabitats: an analogue to plants in forest gaps and understoreys? Funct Ecol 17:246–259

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anthony KRN, Connolly SR, Willis BL (2002) Comparative analysis of energy allocation to tissue and skeletal growth in corals. Limnol Oceangr 47:1417–1429

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker AC (2004) Symbiont diversity on coral reefs and relationship to bleaching resistance. In: Rosenberg E, Loya Y (eds) Coral health and diseases. Springer, Berlin, pp 177–194

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Berkelmans R, Willis BL (1999) Seasonal and local spatial patterns in the upper thermal limits of corals on the inshore central Great Barrier Reef. Coral Reefs 18:219–228

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowler K (2005) Acclimation, heat shock and hardening. J Therm Biol 30:125–130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown BE, Dunne RP, Ambarsari I, Le Tissier MDA, Satapoomin U (1999) Seasonal fluctuations in environmental factors and variations in symbiotic algae and chlorophyll pigments in four Indo-Pacific coral species. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 191:53–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown BE, Dunne RP, Goodson MS, Douglas AE (2002) Experience shapes the susceptibility of a reef coral to bleaching. Coral Reefs 21:119–126

    Google Scholar 

  • Buddemeier RW, Kinzie RA (1976) Coral growth. Ocean Mar Biol Ann Rev 14:183–225

    Google Scholar 

  • Buddemeier RW, Baker AC, Fautin DG, Jacobs JB (2004) The adaptive hypothesis of bleaching. In: Rosenberg E, Loya Y (eds) Coral health and diseases. Springer, Berlin, pp 1427–1444

    Google Scholar 

  • Castillo KD, Helmuth BST (2005) Influence of thermal history on the response of Montastraea annularis to short-term temperature exposure. Mar Biol 148:261–270

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coles SL, Brown BE (2003) Coral bleaching—capacity for acclimatization and adaptation. Adv Mar Biol 46:183–223

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Coles SL, Jokiel PL (1977) Effects of temperature on photosynthesis and respiration in hermatypic corals. Mar Biol 43:209–216

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Coles SL, Jokiel PL (1978) Synergistic effects of temperature, salinity and light on the hermatypic coral Montipora verrucosa. Mar Biol 49:187–195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dana JD (1846) Zoophytes. US Explor Exped 1838–1842 7:1–740

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies PS (1989) Short-term growth measurements of corals using an accurate buoyant weighing technique. Mar Biol 101:389–395

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Day TL, Nagel L, van Oppen MJH, Caley MJ (2008) Factors affecting the evolution of bleaching resistance in corals. Am Nat 171:72–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dove SG, Hoegh-Guldberg O (2006) The cell physiology of coral bleaching. In: Kleypas J, Skirving W, Strong A (eds) Coral reefs and climate change: science and management. American Geophysical Union, Washington, pp 55–71

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Edmunds PJ (2004) Juvenile coral populations track rising seawater temperature on a Caribbean reef. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 269:111–119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edmunds PJ (2005) The effect of sub-lethal increases in temperature on the growth and population trajectories of three scleractinian corals on the southern Great Barrier Reef. Oecologia 146:350–364

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edmunds PJ (2006) Temperature- mediated transitions between isometry and allometry in a colonial, modular invertebrate. Proc R Soc B 273:2275–2281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edmunds PJ (2008) The effects of temperature on the growth of juvenile scleractinian corals. Mar Biol 154:153–162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edmunds PJ, Gates RD (2008) Acclimatization in tropical reef corals. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 361:307–310

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edmunds PJ, Spencer-Daves P (1986) An energy budget for Porites porites (Scleractinia). Mar Biol 92:339–347

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards H, Haime JM (1860) Histoire naturelle des Coralliaires. Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret, Paris, vol 1, 2, 3, pp 1–326, 1–632, 1–560

  • Falkowski PG, Dubinsky Z (1981) Light-shade adaptation of Stylophora pistillata, a hermatypic coral from the Gulf of Eilat. Nature 289:172–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fitt WK, McFarland FK, Warner ME, Chilcoat GC (2000) Seasonal patterns of tissue biomass and densities of symbiotic dinoflagellates in reef corals and relation to coral bleaching. Limnol Oceanogr 45:677–685

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Forskål P (1775) Descriptiones Animalium, Avium, Amphibiorium, Piscium, Insectorum, Vermium que in intinere orientali observavit Petrus Forskål. IV Corallia. Hauniae, pp 131–139

  • Gates RD, Edmunds PJ (1999) The physiological mechanisms of acclimatization in tropical reef corals. Am Zool 39:30–43

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gorbunov MY, Kolber SZ, Lesser MP, Falkowski PG (2001) Photosynthesis and photoprotection in symbiotic corals. Limnol Oceanogr 46:75–85

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gould SJ, Lloyd EA (1997) Individuality and adaptation across levels of selection: how shall we name and generalize the unit of Darwinism? Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 96:11904–11909

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grottoli AG, Rodrigues LJ, Palardy JE (2006) Heterotrophic plasticity and resilience in bleached corals. Nature 440:1186–1189

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hazel JR (1995) Thermal adaptation in biological membranes: is homeoviscous adaptation the explanation? Annu Rev Physiol 57:19–42

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hoegh-Guldberg OM, Fine M, Skirving W, Johnson R, Dove S, Strong A (2005) Coral bleaching following wintry weather. Limnol Oceanogr 50:265–271

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hurlbert SH (1984) Pseudoreplication and the design of ecological field experiments. Ecol Monogr 54:187–211

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iglesias-Prieto R, Matta JL, Robins WA, Trench RK (1992) Photosynthetic response to elevated temperature in the symbiotic dinoflagellate Symbiodinium microadriaticum in culture. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 89:10302–10305

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jokiel PL (2004) Temperature stress and coral bleaching. In: Rosenberg E, Loya Y (eds) Coral health and diseases. Springer, Berlin, pp 401–425

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Jokiel PL, Coles SL (1977) Effects of temperature on the mortality and growth of Hawaiin reef corals. Mar Biol 43:201–208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones RJ, Hoegh-Guldberg O, Larkum AWD, Scheiber U (1998) Temperature-induced bleaching of corals begins with impairment of the CO2 fixation mechanism in zooxanthellae. Plant Cell Environ 21:1219–1230

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jones AM, Berkelmans R, van Oppen MJH, Mieog JC, Sinclair W (2008) A community change in the algal endosymbionts of a scleractinian coral following a natural bleaching event: field evidence of acclimatization. Proc R Soc B 275:1359–1365

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leichter JJ, Helmuth BST, Fisher AM (2006) Variation beneath the surface: quantifying complex thermal environments on coral reefs in the Caribbean, Bahamas and Florida. J Mar Res 64:563–588

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levy O, Mizrah L, Chadwick-Furman NE, Achituv Y (2001) Factors controlling the expansion behavior of Favia favus (Cnidaria: Scleractinia): effects of light, flow, and planktonic prey. Biol Bull 200:118–126

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Link HT (1807) Beschreibung der Naturalien Sammlungen der Universitat zu Rostock 3:161–165

  • Marsh JA (1970) Primary productivity of reef-building calcareous red algae. Ecology 51:255–263

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell K, Johnson GN (2000) Chlorophyll fluorescence—a practical guide. J Exp Bot 51:659–668

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Middlebrook R, Hoegh-Guldberg O, Leggat W (2008) The effect of thermal history on the susceptibility of reef-building corals to thermal stress. J Exp Biol 211:1050–1056

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mumby PJ, Chisholm JRM, Edwards AJ, Andrefout S, Jaubert J (2001) Cloudy weather may have saved Society Island coral reefs during the 1998 ENSO event. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 222:209–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muscatine L, Grossman D, Doino J (1991) Release of symbiotic algae by tropical sea anemones and corals after cold shock. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 77:233–243

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nakamura T, van Woesik R (2001) Water-flow rates and passive diffusion partially explain differential survival of corals during the 1998 bleaching event. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 212:301–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter JW, Lewis SK, Porter KG (1999) The effects of multiple stressors on the Florida Keys coral reef ecosystem: a landscape hypothesis and a physiological test. Limnol Oceanogr 44:941–949

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quelch JJ (1884) Preliminary notice of new genera and species of Challenger reef corals. Ann Mag Nat Hist 13:292–297

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quinn GP, Keough MJ (2003) Experimental design and data analysis for biologists. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Rohwer F, Seguritan V, Azam F, Knowlton N (2002) Diversity and distribution of coral-associated bacteria. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 243:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suwa R, Hirosa M, Hidaka M (2008) Seasonal fluctuation in zooxanthellar genotype composition and photophysiology in the corals Pavona divaricata and P. decussata. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 361:129–137

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tchernov D, Gorbunov MY, Vargas C, Yadav SN, Milligan AJ, Haggblom M, Falkowski PG (2004) Membrane lipids of symbiotic algae are diagnostic of sensitivity to thermal bleaching in corals. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:13531–13535

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vaughan TW (1918) Some shoal-water corals from Murray Islands, Cocos-Keeling Islands and Fanning Island. Pap Dept Mar Biol Carnegie Inst Wash 9:51–243

    Google Scholar 

  • Warner ME, Fitt WK, Schmidt GW (1999) Damage to photosystem II in symbiotic dinoflagellates: a determinant of coral bleaching. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 96:8007–8012

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Warner ME, Chilcoat GC, McFarland FK, Fitt WK (2002) Seasonal fluctuations in the photosynthetic capacity of photosystem II in symbiotic dinoflagellates in the Caribbean reef-building coral Montastraea. Mar Biol 141:31–38

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wethey DS, Porter JW (1976) Sun and shade differences in productivity of reef corals. Nature 262:281–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yellowlees D, Rees TAV, Leggat W (2008) Metabolic interactions between algal symbionts and invertebrate hosts. Plant Cell Environ 31:679–694

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grant OCE 04-17412 from the National Science Foundation and gifts from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and was completed under a permit from the French Polynesian Ministry of Research. I am grateful to N. Davies and the staff of the UC Berkeley, Richard B. Gump South Pacific Research Station for making my visit to Moorea productive and enjoyable, M. Murray for field support, and my graduate students N. Muehllehner and H. Putnam for help in multiple aspects of this project. This is a contribution of the Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) LTER Site, and is contribution number 151 of the Marine Biology Program of California State University, Northridge.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, California State University, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA, 91330-8303, USA

    Peter J. Edmunds

Authors
  1. Peter J. Edmunds
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter J. Edmunds.

Additional information

Communicated by J. P. Grassle.

Electronic supplementary material

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Edmunds, P.J. Effect of acclimatization to low temperature and reduced light on the response of reef corals to elevated temperature. Mar Biol 156, 1797–1808 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-009-1213-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-009-1213-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation