TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing the feasibility of assisted migration of corals in the Red Sea
AU - Barreto, Marcelle Muniz
AU - Schmidt-Roach, Sebastian
AU - Zhong, Huawen
AU - Aranda, Manuel
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Amr Gusti, Alicia Schmidt-Roach, Maha Cziesielski, Royale Hardenstine, Shannon Brown, Timothy Thomson and Angus Li for all the assistance during fieldwork. We also thank logistical support provided by the KAUST Coastal and Marine Resources Core Lab. This publication is based on work supported by the KAUST Office of Sponsored Research under award no. FCC/1/1973-47-01.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2023 Barreto, Schmidt-Roach, Zhong and Aranda.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Climate change, and in particular the unprecedented rapid global warming, presents a major threat to corals, with warming rates potentially exceeding the adaptive capacities of most coral species. Assisted gene flow, the human facilitated introduction of temperature resilience alleles from warmer to threatened colder populations via the movement of individuals (assisted migration) or their gametes (selective breeding), has been suggested as a tool to transfer thermal adaptations among populations. Due to its strong latitudinal temperature gradient and extreme temperature conditions, the Red Sea constitutes an ideal location to investigate the potential of this strategy. Here, we relocated Porites lobata colonies from three reefs along the Saudi Arabian Red Sea with different mean sea surface temperature summer maxima (ranging from 30.9 °C in Duba, 32.5 °C in Thuwal, to 33.8 °C in Jazan) to a common garden experiment in the intermediate central location. Five colonies from each location were fragmented and deployed in situ in early summer of 2018 to investigate physiological differences in bleaching, survival, and growth. Results showed significantly higher bleaching in fragments from Duba, followed by 65% mortality. Even though no bleaching was observed in fragments from Jazan, mortality rates of around 20% indicated that other environmental parameters besides temperature might influence coral health and survival. These results suggest that assisted gene flow via translocation alone may be restricted in its success due to a lack of local adaptations to environmental conditions other than temperature. However, strategies like inter-populational breeding may overcome these limitations as they might allow producing offspring with both increased thermal tolerance and local adaptations.
AB - Climate change, and in particular the unprecedented rapid global warming, presents a major threat to corals, with warming rates potentially exceeding the adaptive capacities of most coral species. Assisted gene flow, the human facilitated introduction of temperature resilience alleles from warmer to threatened colder populations via the movement of individuals (assisted migration) or their gametes (selective breeding), has been suggested as a tool to transfer thermal adaptations among populations. Due to its strong latitudinal temperature gradient and extreme temperature conditions, the Red Sea constitutes an ideal location to investigate the potential of this strategy. Here, we relocated Porites lobata colonies from three reefs along the Saudi Arabian Red Sea with different mean sea surface temperature summer maxima (ranging from 30.9 °C in Duba, 32.5 °C in Thuwal, to 33.8 °C in Jazan) to a common garden experiment in the intermediate central location. Five colonies from each location were fragmented and deployed in situ in early summer of 2018 to investigate physiological differences in bleaching, survival, and growth. Results showed significantly higher bleaching in fragments from Duba, followed by 65% mortality. Even though no bleaching was observed in fragments from Jazan, mortality rates of around 20% indicated that other environmental parameters besides temperature might influence coral health and survival. These results suggest that assisted gene flow via translocation alone may be restricted in its success due to a lack of local adaptations to environmental conditions other than temperature. However, strategies like inter-populational breeding may overcome these limitations as they might allow producing offspring with both increased thermal tolerance and local adaptations.
KW - assisted evolution
KW - climate change
KW - common garden experiment
KW - coral bleaching
KW - coral resilience
KW - Porites lobata
KW - thermotolerance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85169707845&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fmars.2023.1181456
DO - 10.3389/fmars.2023.1181456
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85169707845
SN - 2296-7745
VL - 10
JO - FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
JF - FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
M1 - 1181456
ER -