Physiological and immunological acclimation in corals differing in life-history traits: a field experiment

Abstract

Corals can exhibit much variability in life-history strategies. A proposed categorization recognizes competitive, stress-tolerant and weedy species. 'Competitive' corals invest more energy towards growth, 'stress-tolerant' towards maintenance and 'weedy' towards reproduction. While competitive corals are declining due to climate change and anthropogenic stressors, stress-tolerant and weedy are thriving. We performed a reciprocal transplant experiment between a degraded and a more pristine reef, and measured the physiological (<em>Symbiodinium</em> density, chlorophyll a concentration, protein concentration) and immunological (oxidative stress) response of the stresstolerant <em>Pseudodiploria strigosa</em> and <em>Orbicella annularis</em>, and the weedy<em> Porites astreoides</em>. Results indicate that the studied species can rapidly and successfully acclimate to local environmental conditions. Comparisons among species suggest that the physiological and immunological response in<em> P. astreoides</em>, <em>P. strigosa</em> and <em>O. annularis</em> are more influenced by species-specificity than by life-history strategy.