Tung-Yung Fan

Effects of diurnally oscillating pCO2 on the calcification and survival of coral recruits.

Manipulative studies have demonstrated that ocean acidification (OA) is a threat to coral reefs, yet no experiments have employed diurnal variations in pCO2 that are ecologically relevant to many shallow reefs. Two experiments were conducted to test the response of coral recruits (less than 6 days old) to diurnally oscillating pCO2; one exposing recruits for 3 days to ambient (440 µatm), high (663 µatm) and diurnally oscillating pCO2 on a natural phase (420–596 µatm), and another exposing recruits for 6 days to ambient (456 µatm), high (837 µatm) and diurnally oscillating pCO2 on either a natural or a reverse phase (448–845 µatm). In experiment I, recruits exposed to natural-phased diurnally oscillating pCO2 grew 6–19% larger than those in ambient or high pCO2. In experiment II, recruits in both high and natural-phased diurnally oscillating pCO2 grew 16 per cent larger than those at ambient pCO2, and this was accompanied by 13–18% higher survivorship; the stimulatory effect on growth of oscillatory pCO2 was diminished by administering high pCO2 during the day (i.e. reverse-phased). These results demonstrate that coral recruits can benefit from ecologically relevant fluctuations in pCO2 and we hypothesize that the mechanism underlying this response is highly pCO2-mediated, night-time storage of dissolved inorganic carbon that fuels daytime calcification.

Persistence and Change in Community Composition of Reef Corals through Present, Past, and Future Climates

The reduction in coral cover on many contemporary tropical reefs suggests a different set of coral community assemblages will dominate future reefs. To evaluate the capacity of reef corals to persist over various time scales, we examined coral community dynamics in contemporary, fossil, and simulated future coral reef ecosystems. Based on studies between 1987 and 2012 at two locations in the Caribbean, and between 1981 and 2013 at five locations in the Indo-Pacific, we show that many coral genera declined in abundance, some showed no change in abundance, and a few coral genera increased in abundance. Whether the abundance of a genus declined, increased, or was conserved, was independent of coral family. An analysis of fossil-reef communities in the Caribbean revealed changes in numerical dominance and relative abundances of coral genera, and demonstrated that neither dominance nor taxon was associated with persistence. As coral family was a poor predictor of performance on contemporary reefs, a trait-based, dynamic, multi-patch model was developed to explore the phenotypic basis of ecological performance in a warmer future. Sensitivity analyses revealed that upon exposure to thermal stress, thermal tolerance, growth rate, and longevity were the most important predictors of coral persistence. Together, our results underscore the high variation in the rates and direction of change in coral abundances on contemporary and fossil reefs. Given this variation, it remains possible that coral reefs will be populated by a subset of the present coral fauna in a future that is warmer than the recent past.

Effect of Temperature on the Settlement Choice and Photophysiology of Larvae From the Reef Coral Stylophora pistillata

To better understand the consequences of climate change for scleractinian corals, Stylophora pistillata was used to test the effects of temperature on the settlement and physiology of coral larvae. Freshly released larvae were exposed to temperatures of 23 °C, 25 °C (ambient), and 29 °C at light intensities of ≈150 μmol photons m−2 s−1. The effects were assessed after 12 h as settlement to various substrata (including a choice between crustose coralline algae [CCA] and limestone) and as maximum quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm) in the larvae versus in their parents. Regardless of temperature, 50%–73% of the larvae metamorphosed onto the plastic of the incubation trays or in a few cases were drifting in the water, and 14% settled on limestone. However, elevated temperature (29 °C) reduced the percentage of larvae swimming by 81%, and increased the percentage choosing CCA nearly 7-fold, both relative to the outcomes at 23 °C. Because temperature did not affect settlement on limestone or plastic, increased settlement on CCA reflected temperature-mediated choices by larvae that otherwise would have remained swimming. Interestingly, Fv/Fm was unaffected by temperature, but it was 4% lower in the larvae than in the parents. These results are important because they show that temperature can affect the settlement of coral larvae and because they reveal photophysiological differences between life stages that might provide insights into the events associated with larval development.

The effects of a variable temperature regime on the physiology of the reef-building coral Seriatopora hystrix: results from a laboratory-based reciprocal transplant

SUMMARY To understand the effects of global climate change on reef-building corals, a thorough investigation of their physiological mechanisms of acclimatization is warranted. However, static temperature manipulations may underestimate the thermal complexity of the reefs in which many corals live. For instance, corals of Houbihu, Taiwan, experience changes in temperature of up to 10°C over the course of a day during spring-tide upwelling events. To better understand the phenotypic plasticity of these corals, a laboratory-based experiment was conducted whereby specimens of Seriatopora hystrix from an upwelling reef (Houbihu) and conspecifics from a non-upwelling reef (Houwan) were exposed to both a stable seawater temperature (26°C) regime and a regime characterized by a 6°C fluctuation (23–29°C) over a 12 h period for 7 days. A suite of physiological and molecular parameters was measured in samples of both treatments, as well as in experimental controls, to determine site of origin (SO) and temperature treatment (TT) responses. Only chlorophyll a (chl a) concentration and growth demonstrated the hypothesized trend of higher levels when exposed to a TT that mimicked SO conditions. In contrast, chl a, maximum dark-adapted quantum yield of photosystem II (Fv/Fm), and Symbiodinium ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (rbcL), photosystem I (psI, subunit III) and phosphoglycolate phosphatase (pgpase) mRNA expression demonstrated significant TT effects. Specifically, levels of these response variables were higher in samples exposed to a variable temperature regime, suggesting that S. hystrix may acclimate to fluctuating temperatures by increasing its capacity for photosynthesis.

Assessing the Impacts of Experimentally Elevated Temperature on the Biological Composition and Molecular Chaperone Gene Expression of a Reef Coral

Due to the potential for increasing ocean temperatures to detrimentally impact reef-building corals, there is an urgent need to better understand not only the coral thermal stress response, but also natural variation in their sub-cellular composition. To address this issue, while simultaneously developing a molecular platform for studying one of the most common Taiwanese reef corals, Seriatopora hystrix, 1,092 cDNA clones were sequenced and characterized. Subsequently, RNA, DNA and protein were extracted sequentially from colonies exposed to elevated (30°C) temperature for 48 hours. From the RNA phase, a heat shock protein-70 (hsp70)-like gene, deemed hsp/c, was identified in the coral host, and expression of this gene was measured with real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) in both the host anthozoan and endosymbiotic dinoflagellates (genus Symbiodinium). While mRNA levels were not affected by temperature in either member, hsp/c expression was temporally variable in both and co-varied within biopsies. From the DNA phase, host and Symbiodinium hsp/c genome copy proportions (GCPs) were calculated to track changes in the biological composition of the holobiont during the experiment. While there was no temperature effect on either host or Symbiodinium GCP, both demonstrated significant temporal variation. Finally, total soluble protein was responsive to neither temperature nor exposure time, though the protein/DNA ratio varied significantly over time. Collectively, it appears that time, and not temperature, is a more important driver of the variation in these parameters, highlighting the need to consider natural variation in both gene expression and the molecular make-up of coral holobionts when conducting manipulative studies. This represents the first study to survey multiple macromolecules from both compartments of an endosymbiotic organism with methodologies that reflect their dual-compartmental nature, ideally generating a framework for assessing molecular-level changes within corals and other endosymbioses exposed to changes in their environment.

Spatial and temporal variation of coral recruitment in Taiwan

1: Institute of Marine Biology, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 2: National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium, Pingtung, Taiwan 3: Institute of Zoology, Academic Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan 4: Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 5: Kenting National Park Authority, Pingtung, Taiwan 6: Penghu Aquarium, Taiwanese Fisheries Research Institute, Penghu, Taiwan

The role of light in mediating the effects of ocean acidification on coral calcification

SUMMARY We tested the effect of light and PCO2 on the calcification and survival of Pocillopora damicornis recruits settled from larvae released in southern Taiwan. In March 2011, recruits were incubated at 31, 41, 70, 122 and 226 μmol photons m−2 s−1 under ambient (493 μatm) and high PCO2 (878 μatm). After 5 days, calcification was measured gravimetrically and survivorship estimated as the number of living recruits. Calcification was affected by the interaction of PCO2 with light, and at 493 μatm PCO2 the response to light intensity resembled a positive parabola. At 878 μatm PCO2, the effect of light on calcification differed from that observed at 493 μatm PCO2, with the result that there were large differences in calcification between 493 μatm and 878 μatm PCO2 at intermediate light intensities (ca. 70 μmol photons m−2 s−1), but similar rates of calcification at the highest and lowest light intensities. Survivorship was affected by light and PCO2, and was highest at 122 μmol photons m−2 s−1 in both PCO2 treatments, but was unrelated to calcification. In June 2012 the experiment was repeated, and again the results suggested that exposure to high PCO2 decreased calcification of P. damicornis recruits at intermediate light intensities, but not at lower or higher intensities. Together, our findings demonstrate that the effect of PCO2 on coral recruits can be light dependent, with inhibitory effects of high PCO2 on calcification at intermediate light intensities that disappear at both higher and lower light intensities.

Towards Automated Annotation of Benthic Survey Images: Variability of Human Experts and Operational Modes of Automation

Global climate change and other anthropogenic stressors have heightened the need to rapidly characterize ecological changes in marine benthic communities across large scales. Digital photography enables rapid collection of survey images to meet this need, but the subsequent image annotation is typically a time consuming, manual task. We investigated the feasibility of using automated point-annotation to expedite cover estimation of the 17 dominant benthic categories from survey-images captured at four Pacific coral reefs. Inter- and intra- annotator variability among six human experts was quantified and compared to semi- and fully- automated annotation methods, which are made available at coralnet.ucsd.edu. Our results indicate high expert agreement for identification of coral genera, but lower agreement for algal functional groups, in particular between turf algae and crustose coralline algae. This indicates the need for unequivocal definitions of algal groups, careful training of multiple annotators, and enhanced imaging technology. Semi-automated annotation, where 50% of the annotation decisions were performed automatically, yielded cover estimate errors comparable to those of the human experts. Furthermore, fully-automated annotation yielded rapid, unbiased cover estimates but with increased variance. These results show that automated annotation can increase spatial coverage and decrease time and financial outlay for image-based reef surveys.

Natural product chemistry of gorgonian corals of the genus Junceella

The structures, names, and references of 49 secondary metabolites from the gorgonian corals of genus Junceella are described in this review.

Effects of temperature on the respiration of brooded larvae from tropical reef corals

SUMMARY This study describes the effects of temperature on the respiration of brooded larvae of scleractinian corals, and evaluates the implications of these effects relative to seawater temperature when peak larval release occurs. Respiration rates of larvae from Pocillopora damicornis, Seriatopora hystrix and Stylophora pistillata were quantified in darkness as oxygen uptake during 1–3 h exposures to five temperatures between 26.4 and 29.6°C. To assess the biological significance of these experiments, the temperature of the seawater into which larvae of P. damicornis and S. hystrix were released was measured for 32–34 months over 5 years between 2003 and 2008. Mean respiration varied from 0.029 to 0.116 nmol O2 larva–1 min–1, and was related parabolically to temperature with a positive threshold at 28.0°C. The temperature coefficients (Q10) for the ascending portion of these relationships (Q10=15–76) indicate that the temperature dependency is stronger than can be explained by kinetics alone, and probably reflects behavioral and developmental effects. Larval release occurred year-round in synchrony with the lunar periodicity when seawater temperature ranged from 21.8 to 30.7°C, and more than half of the sampled larvae were released at 27.5–28.9°C. The coincidence on the temperature scale of peak larval release with the thermal threshold for respiration suggests that high metabolic rates have selective value for pelagic coral larvae. The large and rapid effects of temperature on larval respiration have implications for studies of the effects of climate change on coral reproduction, particularly when seawater temperature exceeds ∼28°C, when our results predict that larval respiration will be greatly reduced.