The role of the microbiome in coral bleaching - Friends or Foes?

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Shallow-water coral reef ecosystems are on decline globally, with heat stress anddeteriorating water quality identified as major causes of coral bleaching and subsequentmass mortality (1,2). The main habitat-founding species, scleractinian corals, are describedas a holobiont formed by the coral host animal, its endosymbiotic dinoflagellates and the'coral microbiome' - constituted by highly diverse and abundant communities of microbesliving on and within the coral. While intense research efforts have focused on how the animalhosts and dinoflagellate symbionts respond to environmental stress, recent evidencesuggests that the coral microbiome changes along environmental gradients and that thisprocess may influence coral resilience to stress (3). Although marine microbes are knownto be key drivers of global biogeochemical cycles; their exact functional roles in the coralholobiont remain unknown. It is unclear how specific environmental parameters shape thestructure of coral microbiome, and which specific mechanisms and microbes drive thehealthy functioning of the holobiont. This project aims to study how environmental multistressors,especially heat and nutrient stress, influence the composition of the microbiomeand their interactions with their hosts in different coral species; thus affecting the resilienceof corals and their capacity to recover from bleaching events.