Latitudinal variation in thermal tolerance breadth of early life stages of corals

Woolsey, Erika and Keith, Sal and Byrne, Maria and Schmidt-Roach, S. and Baird, Andrew (2015) Latitudinal variation in thermal tolerance breadth of early life stages of corals. Coral Reefs, 34 (2). pp. 471-478. ISSN 0722-4028

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Abstract

Organisms living in habitats characterized by a marked seasonal temperature variation often have a greater thermal tolerance than those living in more stable habitats. To determine the extent to which this hypothesis applies to reef corals, we compared thermal tolerance of the early life stages of five scleractinian species from three locations spanning 17° of latitude along the east coast of Australia. Embryos were exposed to an 8 °C temperature range around the local ambient temperature at the time of spawning. Upper thermal thresholds, defined as the temperature treatment at which the proportion of abnormal embryos or median life span was significantly different to ambient controls, varied predictably among locations. At Lizard Island, the northern-most site with the least annual variation in temperature, the proportion of abnormal embryos increased and life span decreased 2 °C above ambient in the two species tested. At two southern sites, One Tree Island and Lord Howe Island, where annual temperature variation was greater, upper temperature thresholds were generally 4 °C or greater above ambient for both variables in the four species tested. The absolute upper thermal threshold temperature also varied among locations: 30 °C at Lizard Island; 28 °C at One Tree Island; 26 °C at Lord Howe Island. These results support previous work on adult corals demonstrating predictable differences in upper thermal thresholds with latitude. With projected ocean warming, these temperature thresholds will be exceeded in northern locations in the near future, adding to a growing body of evidence indicating that climate change is likely to be more detrimental to low latitude than high latitude corals .

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Coral Reefs
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1100/1104
Subjects:
?? coral reefslarval ecologybiogeography dispersal aquatic science ??
ID Code:
85690
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
27 Mar 2017 08:28
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 16:53