OCN 780 Seminar | Physiological and Symbiotic Drivers of Coral Acclimatization and Stress Tolerance | Powell

Presenter: Dr. Maya Powell

Title: Physiological and Symbiotic Drivers of Coral Acclimatization and Stress Tolerance

Coral reefs are crucial for global biodiversity and provide ecosystem services for millions of people worldwide. Stressors such as global warming and local pollution can result in degraded coral reef ecosystems, leading to non-coral dominated states with reduced functioning. Understanding coral responses to these anthropogenic stressors is key to predicting the future of coral reef assemblages. Corals are holobiont organisms made up of the host, symbiotic algae, bacteria, and more. My research seeks to understand the connections between these holobiont partners, and the physiological mechanisms underpinning coral stress tolerance and acclimatization in response to local and global stressors. To this end, I will share work on the acclimatization capacity of coral holobionts to extreme, multi-stressor conditions in Curaçao. Here, I identified symbiont shuffling as a key acclimatization mechanism, and linked symbiont identity to thermal tolerance. Furthermore, I explored interspecific variation in thermal performance and coral physiology from highly diverse reefs in Okinawa, Japan. I determined potential key physiological indicators of stress tolerance, and predicted the impacts of potential changes in species assemblages. Collectively, these findings reveal how physiological and symbiotic flexibility can enhance coral resilience and guide management strategies that support functional, diverse reef ecosystems under climate change

Location: MSB-100

Time: 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm