Collaborative Research:RAPID: A hyper-thermal anomaly in the Florida Reef Tract: An opportunity to explore the mechanisms underpinning patterns of coral bleaching and disease

珊瑚礁是地球上最具生物多样性和经济重要性的生态系统之一。然而，由于气候变化、疾病暴发和其他压力因素的影响，珊瑚礁正处于全球衰退状态。大规模珊瑚漂白事件是珊瑚与其共生藻类之间关系的崩溃，预计将因应气候变化而变得更加频繁和严重，预计随后的疾病爆发将变得更加常见。从2014年8月开始，佛罗里达珊瑚礁地区几乎所有珊瑚物种都经历了严重的白化，在某些情况下，随后出现了珊瑚死亡和/或疾病暴发。这一广泛的、由温度引起的事件为探索珊瑚漂白、疾病和恢复模式的基础机制提供了一个独特的时间敏感的机会。漂白、疾病、死亡率和恢复模式之间的联系机制仍然相对未知。这项研究将探索寄主息肉、它们的藻类共生体和伴生细菌的基因组合对珊瑚标本的漂白/疾病可能性和恢复/死亡易感性的影响。通过提供对珊瑚漂白和随后恢复过程的机械性理解，这项研究将有助于采取措施支持保护这一宝贵的自然资源。这项研究将进一步吸引来自不同背景的学生，并为高中生提供项目实习机会。一个以网络为基础的广播博客将向广大受众传播项目结果和其他相关发展情况。预计大规模珊瑚白化事件将因应气候变化而变得更加频繁和严重，预计随后的疾病暴发将变得更加常见。在之前的自然漂白事件之前，缺乏珊瑚全叶生物的基线遗传数据集，这阻碍了我们对恢复模式和对热应激(也称为珊瑚漂白)的生理耐受性的理解。广泛的热应激前珊瑚宿主、共生菌和相关细菌群落的基因型别基线提供了一个独特的机会，可以分析与佛罗里达海岸线当前漂白事件相关的变化，并记录对漂白和疾病抵抗力最强和最不抵抗/恢复能力最强的Holobion成分。对相同珊瑚群体的重复采样将使研究人员能够比较健康和患病个体漂白前、漂白期间和漂白后的全硫酸盐组成。这一漂白事件是一项具有时间敏感性的自然实验，旨在研究与受影响群体相关的微生物(共生菌和细菌)的动态，包括它们对珊瑚礁疾病易感性和抵抗力的潜在影响。这项工作将是第一次将珊瑚、共生菌内共生体和珊瑚相关细菌群落基因型的高通量测序一起用于解释自然漂白后的疾病、恢复和死亡模式。这项研究可能会改变研究人员研究定义海洋底栖动物群落的关键物种的新出现的消耗性疾病的方式。

Coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse and economically important ecosystems on the planet. However, coral reefs are in a state of global decline due to effects of climate change, disease outbreaks, and other stressors. Mass coral bleaching events, a breakdown of the association between corals and their symbiotic algae, are predicted to become more frequent and severe in response to climate change, and it is expected that subsequent disease outbreaks will become more common. Beginning in August 2014, nearly all coral species in the Florida Reef Tract have undergone severe bleaching, in some cases followed by coral mortality and/or disease outbreaks. This widespread, thermal-induced event presents a unique time-sensitive opportunity to explore the mechanisms underpinning the patterns of coral bleaching, disease, and recovery. The mechanisms linking patterns of bleaching, disease, mortality, and recovery remain relatively unexplored. This research will explore the influences that genotype combinations of host polyps, their algal symbionts, and associated bacterial have on bleaching/disease likelihood and recovery/mortality predisposition of coral specimens. By providing a mechanistic understanding of the processes that underlie coral bleaching and subsequent recovery this research will contribute to measures in support of preserving this invaluable natural resource. The study will further involve students from diverse backgrounds as well as provide project internship opportunities for high school students. A web based radio blog will disseminate project results and other relevant developments to the broad audiences Mass coral bleaching events are predicted to become more frequent and severe in response to climate change, and it is expected that subsequent disease outbreaks will become more common. The lack of a baseline genetic datasets for coral holobionts prior to previous natural bleaching events has hindered our understanding of recovery patterns and physiological tolerance to thermal stress, also known as coral bleaching. An extensive pre-thermal stress baseline of genotypic identity of coral hosts, Symbiodinium, and associated bacterial community offers a unique opportunity to analyze changes associated with current bleaching event along the Florida coastline and to document holobiont compositions most and least resistant/resilient to bleaching and disease. Repeated sampling of the same coral colonies will allow the investigators to compare holobiont composition before, during and after bleaching of both healthy and diseased individuals. This bleaching event is a time-sensitive natural experiment to examine the dynamics of microbes (Symbiodinium and bacteria) associated with affected colonies, including their potential influence on disease susceptibility and resistance of reef corals. This effort would constitute the first time that high throughput sequencing of coral, Symbiodinium endosymbiont, and the coral-associated bacterial community genotypes are together used to explain patterns of disease, recovery, and mortality following natural bleaching. This study will likely change the way investigators study emerging wasting diseases of keystone species that define marine benthic communities.