Living evidence of a fossil survival strategy raises hope for warming-affected corals
Living evidence of a fossil survival strategy raises hope for warming-affected corals
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DOI：
10.1126/sciadv.aax2950
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发表时间：
2019-10
期刊：
影响因子：
13.6
通讯作者：
D. Kersting;C. Linares
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
D. Kersting;C. Linares
在现代珊瑚中发现了一种化石生存策略，这解释了变暖导致的死亡后意外的恢复。气候变化正在影响世界各地建造珊瑚礁的珊瑚，复苏的希望渺茫。然而，珊瑚化石暗示了环境压力引发的生存策略的存在，这在现存的殖民地珊瑚中没有报道。我们记录了这种生存策略的活生生的证据和长期的生态作用，在这种策略中，受气候变暖影响的珊瑚群体中的孤立息肉采用了短暂的抵抗期，进而在死亡的群体区域表现出高恢复能力。在化石珊瑚中，这种过程被描述为返老还童，但在现存的造礁珊瑚中，这种过程以前是未知的。我们基于16年监测的结果表明，这一过程对于受到气候变暖严重影响的珊瑚群的意外恢复具有重要意义。这些发现提供了化石和现存珊瑚恢复活力之间的联系，并揭示了除了适应和适应过程之外，现代硬珊瑚还显示出尚未被发现的高效生存策略，帮助它们抵御和从快速的环境变化中恢复。
The discovery of a fossil survival strategy in modern corals explains unexpected recoveries after warming-induced mortalities. Climate change is affecting reef-building corals worldwide, with little hope for recovery. However, coral fossils hint at the existence of environmental stress–triggered survival strategies unreported in extant colonial corals. We document the living evidence and long-term ecological role of such a survival strategy in which isolated polyps from coral colonies affected by warming adopt a transitory resistance phase, in turn expressing a high recovery capacity in dead colony areas. Such processes have been described in fossil corals as rejuvenescence but were previously unknown in extant reef-builder corals. Our results based on 16 years of monitoring show the significance of this process for unexpected recoveries of coral colonies severely affected by warming. These findings provide a link between rejuvenescence in fossil and extant corals and reveal that beyond adaptation and acclimatization processes, modern scleractinian corals show yet undiscovered and highly effective survival strategies that help them withstand and recover from rapid environmental changes.