Photophysiology of a mesophotic coral 3 years after transplantation to a shallow environment

Or Ben-Zvi, Raz Tamir, Nir Keren, Dan Tchernov, Ilana Berman-Frank, Yuval Kolodny, Tal Benaltabet, Harel Bavli, Mor Friedman, Noga Glanz-Idan, Hadar Traugott, Yossi Loya, Gal Eyal

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

With shallow coral reefs suffering from an ongoing rapid decline in many regions of the world, the interest in studies on mesophotic coral ecosystems (30–150 m) is growing rapidly. While most photoacclimation responses in corals were documented within the upper 30 m of reefs, in the present study we transplanted fragments of a strictly mesophotic species from the Red Sea, Euphyllia paradivisa, from 50 m to 5 m for a period of 3 years. Following the retrieval of the corals, their physiological and photosynthetic properties of the corals were tested. The transplanted corals presented evidence of photosynthetic acclimation to the shallow habitat, lower sensitivity to photoinhibition, and a high survival percentage, while also demonstrating a reduced ability to utilize low light compared to their mesophotic counterparts. This long-term successful transplantation from a mesophotic depth to a shallow habitat has provided us with insights regarding the ability of mesophotic corals and their symbionts to survive and withstand shallow environments, dominated by a completely different light regime. The extensive characterization of the photobiology of E. paradivisa, and its photoacclimation response to a high-light environment also demonstrates the plasticity of corals and point out to mechanisms different than those reported previously in shallower corals.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)903-913
Number of pages11
JournalCoral Reefs
Volume39
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Aug 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding was provided by the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 1191/16), Ministry of Science and Technology, Israel (Grant No. 3-18487), European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie (Grant No. 796025). Acknowledgements

Funding Information:
We would like to thank the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat (IUI) for logistical support and making their facilities available to us. We thank M. Fine and his lab for assisting us with the Imaging-PAM measurements and I. Cohen for his assistance in analyzing the respiration metabolic chambers results. We are grateful to the Marine Photosynthesis Course in the IUI for their contribution to the final stage of this research. We also thank N. Paz for her proofreading and the anonymous reviewers for their much-appreciated comments.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

  • Euphyllia paradivisa
  • Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs)
  • Photoacclimation
  • Photophysiology
  • Photosynthesis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Aquatic Science

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