CORAL HEALTH ASSESSMENT PROGRAM STUDIES

Symbiodinium diversity and how it relates to coral health

M. Stat., X. Pochon, and R. Gates

Correlation with diseased Acropora and clade A Symbiodinium at French Frigate Shoals (Stat).

The aim of this research is to detect biological indicators of coral health and use them to predict the resilience of the Monument to environmental change. An integral component of the coral reef ecosystem is the mutualistic symbiosis (where both partners benefit from the association) between coral and their symbiotic dinoflagellates, Symbiodinium. This symbiosis accounts for the growth and formation of the reef substrate as well as providing an ecologically important habitat for a wide range of marine invertebrates and fish. The genus Symbiodinium is genetically diverse and contains eight lineages each containing many sub-clade types. The goals of this research are to identify Symbiodinium types that render a coral more susceptible to disease and/or bleaching, to describe the diversity of Symbiodinium in the Monument, and to determine if and how the coral reefs in the Monument have been affected by environmental change.

Recent papers related to this work

vanOppen, M.J.H., Leong, J.C. & Gates, R.D. (In press). Coral-virus interactions: a double-edged sword? Symbiosis.

Stat, M. Morris, E. and Gates, R. D. (In press). Functional diversity in coral-dinoflagellate symbiosis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Manning, M. M. and Gates, R. D. (In press). Diversity in populations of free-living Symbiodinium from a Caribbean and Pacific reef. Limnology and Oceanography.

Edmunds, P. J. and Gates, R. D. 2008. Acclimatization in tropical reefs corals. Marine Ecological Progress Series 361: 307-310.

Stat, M. and Gates, R. D. 2008. Vectored introductions of marine endosymbiotic dinoflagellates into Hawaii. Biological Invasions 10(4): 579-583.

Leggat, W., Ainsworth, T. A., Bythell, J. C., Dove, S., Gates, R. D., Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Iglesias-Prieto, R., Yellowlees D. 2007. Communication arising from Rosenberg et al (2007). Nature Reviews Microbiology.

Lesser, M. P., Bythell, J. C., Gates, R. D., Johnstone, R. W., Hoegh Guldberg, O. 2007. Are infectious diseases really killing corals?Alternative Interpretations of the Experimental and Ecological Data. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 346: 36–44.

Apprill. A. M., Bidigare, R. R. and Gates, R. D. 2007. Visibly healthy corals exhibit variable pigment concentrations and symbiont phenotypes. Coral Reefs 26: 387-397.

Mayfield, A. B. and Gates, R. D. 2007. Osmoregulation and osmotic stress in coral dinoflagellate symbiosis: Role in coral bleaching. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 147 (1): 1-10.

Apprill, A. M. and Gates, R. D. 2007. Recognizing diversity in coral symbiotic dinoflagellate communities. Molecular Ecology (16): 1127-1134.

van Oppen M. J. H. and Gates R. D. 2006. Understanding the resilience of reef corals: the roles of molecular biology and genetics. Invited Review. Molecular Ecology 15, 3863–3883

Ridgeway T. and Gates R. D. 2006. Why are there so few genetic markers available for coral population analyses? Symbiosis 41: 1-7.