Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CoralChange (How will coral reefs look like in the future? Adaptive mechanisms and sublethal effects in corals under global change)
Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31
The CoralChange project wants to estimate future evolution of coral reefs taking into account the energetic cost of adaptive mechanisms to global change, and their transgenerational effects that can undermine early-life history stages of coral species. Although there is clear evidence that the success of early-life stages is essential for the persistence of coral populations, the demographic consequences of their vulnerability to global change has been largely neglected. By means of a multidisciplinary proposal, CoralChange project represents a significant step forward to understand the underlining ecophysiological and demographic mechanisms driving changes in coral reefs facing global change. The results of this project will contribute to improve coral reefs management and conservation by focusing protection and restoration efforts towards those coral species showing higher probability to survive in future conditions. Thus, the project provide a fundamental tool to project future ecological trends in response to global change.
The main goals of the CoralChange project are to examine the long-term biological impacts of climate change stressors and predict possible phase-shifts in the community structure of coral reefs. To achieve this goal, the project is divided into three specific objectives: (1) Assessment of coral life-history parameters in the field, (2) Experimental assessment of sublethal effects driven by adaptive mechanisms in corals under global change and (3) Assessment of long-term viability of coral populations to predict phase-shifts in composition of future coral reefs. A parallel goal of the MSCA Individual Fellowship is to foster the Fellow development as individual researcher.
The main goals of the CoralChange project are to examine the long-term biological impacts of climate change stressors and predict possible phase-shifts in the community structure of coral reefs. To achieve this goal, the project is divided into three specific objectives: (1) Assessment of coral life-history parameters in the field, (2) Experimental assessment of sublethal effects driven by adaptive mechanisms in corals under global change and (3) Assessment of long-term viability of coral populations to predict phase-shifts in composition of future coral reefs. A parallel goal of the MSCA Individual Fellowship is to foster the Fellow development as individual researcher.
The work proposed in the project was divided in 3 work packages: (WP1) Assessment of coral life-history parameters at Virgin Islands, (WP2) Assessment of long-term viability of coral populations to predict phase-shifts in composition of future coral reefs, and (WP3) Assessment of long-term viability of coral populations to predict phaseshifts in composition of future coral reefs. Due to COVID-19 emergency situation, the Fellow had been forced to develop several contingency plans during the first 2 years. In the WP1, the field work in the Caribbean was replaced with (i) experiments to study the thermal stress effects on octocoral larvae in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as (ii) writing a review manuscript on octocoral reproduction. Results obtained from the experimental study have been published in Global Change Biology Journal (IF 13.211) and the review manuscript is in preparation and will be submitted shortly in Coral Reefs Journal (IF 4.362). Moreover, the Fellow is currently working on data treat of lipidomic analyses of larvae obtained in the experiment and the results will be submitted in the following months. In the frame of the contingency plan, WP2 has been developed in its totality during the second year. Fragments of coral colonies have been collected in Florida Keys, instead of Virgin Islands. Following the experimental design proposed, coral fragments from different species were maintained under contrasted treatments of global change scenarios, and data on coral survival and growth every other week, as well as photosynthesis and feeding rates, density of symbiotic algae in coral tissue, respiration, and reproductive output of each coral fragments were collected after more than half year of incubation. Additionally, samples for lipidomic were fixed and preserved for analysis. Finally, she also measured coral photosynthetic efficiency with PAM-diving, and she acquired and treated images for the developed of 3D imaging reconstructions of each coral fragment used in the experiment, to provide detailed normalization of the physiological rates measured to the coral size and surface. The data obtained suggest that Muricea elongata could be the most resistant species due to principally its high heterotrophic inputs. However, its persistence could become compromised by reproductive failure. Porites astreoides may cope the ocean warming affects provided continuous events of food pulses, whereas the ocean warming effects could cause drastic consequences on Gorgonia ventalina populations. In the frame of this WP, one-two manuscripts are being processed and will be submitted shortly. Due to the novelty and complexity to understand and interpret the results from lipidomic analyses, the results will be separately submitted. Finally, in the frame of WP3, matrix Models and IPMs were constructed for the three studied species in the WP2, and, due to the contingency plans developed in the WP1, two of the most abundant Mediterranean octocoral species has been added. After constructed the models, the effects of thermal stress and food availability assessed in the experimental study of WP2 and the experimental data obtained in WP1, respectively, were integrated in the models to predict coral population dynamics under ocean warming. However, to fully integrate the results obtained on the sublethal effects driven by ocean warming in the models are being a big challenge, since the models only recognize mortality/survival, growth and recruitment. In order to be able to include these data about sublethal effects, the fellow is collaborating with Dr. Capdevila from the UB, who has extensive expertise in demographic models. Finally, the projections obtained for each studied species (currently without sublethal effects data) suggested similar conclusions that obtained in the frame of WP2, demonstrating that the models are well constructed. However, due to the models do not include the sublethal effects of ocean warming the outputs of these models could be overestimate. In this WP, two manuscripts are planned, one for the Mediterranean octocorals and one for the studied species in the WP2. The articles in preparation will be submitted to journals that the UB has reached open access agreements ensuring EU policy. All the scientific publications (will) include the reference to EU funding in the acknowledge section.
This MSCA has pushed the frontiers of research forward in numerous ways. The issues the Fellow developed has been addressed in socio-cultural diversity and in students’ identity formation. The educational blogs, as well as seminary events conducted by the Fellow, are helping popularize researching at general level, and particularly in marine ecology. The public society has access to the CoralChange webpage, where people can learn and understand the scientist life from day to day. The seminaries conducted by the Fellow in primary schools has allowed to bring science closer to younger students, whereas a seminary performed by the Fellow in a governmental institution (Agencia per la Qualitat Universitaria, Government of Catalonia, Spain) was specifically focused to help new MSCA candidates to understand the aims of the MSCA program and develop their proposals.
The MSCA allowed the Fellow to learn, acquire and consolidate agility in many different research methodologies, some of them newly emerged discipline (e.g. lipidomic analyses, study of coral photosynthetic efficiency, 3D imaging reconstruction, demographic models). The master students supervised by the Fellow during these years achieved an excellent formation and are currently working with the Fellow in writing manuscripts which will be submitted for publication in indexed scientific journals.
The MSCA allowed the Fellow to learn, acquire and consolidate agility in many different research methodologies, some of them newly emerged discipline (e.g. lipidomic analyses, study of coral photosynthetic efficiency, 3D imaging reconstruction, demographic models). The master students supervised by the Fellow during these years achieved an excellent formation and are currently working with the Fellow in writing manuscripts which will be submitted for publication in indexed scientific journals.