Identifying "super corals" in Mauritius: what physiological factors promote high recovery after bleaching?

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This study aims to describe the physiological mechanisms that promote a successful response of thermally tolerant corals, which we define as “super corals". We surveyed two target reefs: Albion (A) (shallow, human impacted) and Belle-Mare (BM) (deep, less affected). We sampled 17 and 19 coral colonies in A and BM respectively. Results from these studies showed that rather than in A, corals in BM were highly exposed to stressful condition judging from the high allomer/Chl-a indicating oxidative stress condition of symbionts and the total holobiont affected judging from the high gly/glu ratio in the tissues of corals from BM. Nevertheless, these corals were successful in keeping high Fv/Fm with healthy zooxanthellae with high Chl-a/cell. High % of the bacterium Endozoicomonas in Pocillopora corals at BM confirmed their healthy condition. The presence of Symbiodiniaceae of Clade D (Genus Durusdinium) (thermal resistant) reinforced “super coral” features. In terms of coral species, Pocillopora eydouxi, Pavona sp and Montipora sp were the species classified as "super corals". Surveys were continued by members of UoM and jointly analyzed during SU team visit to Mauritius in December 2022. We published 2 scientific papers in collaboration with Mauritius researchers. We participated in 2 international symposia with oral and poster presentations.