http://www.coralreefphotos.

com/wp-
content/uploads/2010/06/Eastpoint-Cave.jpg
The Ways in which Corals May or May Not Adapt
To Climate Change/Global Warming

by

Paul W. Sammarco1
and
Kevin B. Strychar2

1Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON)

Chauvin, LA, USA

2Annis Water Resources Institute/

Grand Valley State University
Muskegon, MI, USA
Current Hermatypic Coral Temperature
and Latitudinal Limits

(Gross, 1977)
Atmospheric CO2 and Temperature
Over the Past 160,000 Years

© Brooks/Cole Publishing Company / ITP

1984

Glaciers –
The Integrators of
Atmospheric Temperature

Mt. Hood, Oregon

Glacier National Park
2002
. 1910 – 150 glaciers
. 2004 – 30 glaciers,
each reduced
by 2/3 in size
 Climate Change / Global Warming

. Energy required to lift an apple to a table = One (1) Joule (J)

. 500 MW power plant produces 5 x 108 J per second

. Between 1960s and 1985-1994, between 10o-24o N lat.

- Pacific – increase of 1.79 x 108 J m-2 (Wong et al., 2001)

. Since the 1950s, our oceans have absorbed an extra 15 x 1022 J

. If warming ceased today, the temperature of the ocean

would not begin to reverse until the year 2075 (Church, 2007).
Endosymbiotic
Zooxanthellae

Present in
Hermatypic
Corals
http://www.ecotourism.ca/effectsofcoralbleaching.html
 Reef Prior to
Bleaching

www.cosmos.ne.jp/~kamiyama/full.htm
 Reef During the
Bleaching Process

www.cosmos.ne.jp~kamiyama/full.htm
1-2 Months after
Bleaching

www.cosmos.ne.jp~kamiyama/full.htm
 Coral Bleaching

. 1979 - First recorded coral bleaching event

. 1998 - El Nino yr - 48% of reefs in the W. Indian Ocean

suffered bleaching;
16% of the world’s reefs appeared to have died.

. 2002 - 60-95% of the 110,000 sq mi of the Great Barrier

Reef bleached

. Many more events since this time

Regions of bleaching over the past 25 years

Country reporting coral bleaching

Locations of major bleaching events

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/outreach/coral/sor/images/map7-large.gif
Experimentation with
Scleractinian Corals –

Great Barrier Reef

Programmed Cell Death

Apoptosis
. Series of biochemical events leading to characteristic
cell morphology and death (incl. blebbing,
cell membrane changes, shrinkage, nuclear fragmentation,
chromatin condensation, and c-DNA fragmentation.)

. e.g., Differentiation of human fingers and toes in development

of a fetus.

Necrosis
. Premature death of cells caused by acute cellular injury by
external factors, such as infection, toxins, or trauma.

. e.g., Necrotic tissue resulting from a recluse spider bite (LA).

 Symbiodinium sp. cells in situ
within the coral Acropora hyacinthus

_Control_ _Experimentally Increased Temperature_

1 mm 500 nm 500 nm

Normal Apoptotic Necrotic

Cell Cell Cell
Favites complanata
(Faviidae)

Morze Koralowe
Pl.reeflex.net/tiere/a756_Favites_complanata.htm
 Favia complanata
Apoptotic Cells, Host vs. Symbiont

Percentage (%)
of Cells

F. complanata
(Faviidae - coral)

Symbiodinium sp.
(symbiont)
Time (hrs)
 Contrary to popular Opinion

90% of the zooxanthellae in

bleaching corals have been found
in various stages of cell death

Normal
Necrotic Apoptotic
Acropora hyacinthus
(Acroporidae)

www.starfish.ch/c-invertebrates/corals.html
 Porites solida
(Poritidae)

Similar Response to
Same Experimental Treatments
Zoo2.zool.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~hirose/Marine/corals/porites.htm
 Adapatation or Exaptation in the Coral Hosts?

. Adaptation

- Requires natural selection by these temperature

conditions in the evolutionary history of this group

. Exaptation

- Requires that some other physiological trait,

previously existing, function known or unknown,
serves to enhance temperature tolerance.
. Is this temperature adaptation / exaptation
restricted to only the zooxanthellate
scleractinian corals?

. Does it extend to other coelenterate groups?

Sarcophyton ehrenbergi
(Alcyoniidae)

www.korallenfarm.de/Weiche.htm
Sarcophyton sp.
bleached

www.ratemyfishtank.com/
friendemail.php/13611
 Sarcophyton ehrenbergi
Necrotic Cells
100

80 Symbiont
34C
60 32C
40
30C
20 28C
Percentage (%) 36C
0
of Cells

100
80 Host

60
40 34C
20
28-32C, 36C
0
0 3 6 9 12
Time (hrs)
Sinularia lochmodes
(Alcyoniidae)
Xenia elongata
(Xeniidae)

David Robb
www.davidrobb.me.uk/Marine/Invertebrates.htm
 Could this phenomenon regarding

endosymbiotic zooxanthellae and bleaching

apply to other cnidarians and other phyla

as well?
 Aiptasia patella
(Anthozoa, Actiniaria)

http://www.berghia.net/aiptasiaBiology.html
Aiptasia pallida, bleached

Jessie Kershner
www.coralscience.org/main/articles/symbio
sis-3/aiptasia-a-bleaching
Cassiopeia xamachana
Scyphozoa

Jonathan Dunder
www.freeinfosociety.com/site.php?postnum=833
http://www.oceanwideimages.com/Large-
Image.asp?pID=15969&cID=73&rp=species%252Easp%253Fs%253DCa
ssiopea%2Bxamachana%2526p%253D1
 Tricacna gigas
(Mollusca, Bivalvia)

Ewa Barska
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tridacna_gigas_by_Ewa_Barska.jpg
Tricacna gigas
Bleaching

James W. Fatheree
www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/8/inverts
. Zooxanthellae more sensitive to temperature than their
hosts in scleractinian corals

. Alcyonaceans - Similar to scleractinian corals

. Application to other cnidarians?

- Bleaching, yes
- Greater sensitivity in endosymbionts than host
Most likely.

. Application to zooxanthellate organisms from other

phyla?

- Most likely, yes.

 Are there alternatives to
endosymbiotic zooxanthellae?

And will they save the day?

Didemnum molle (Ascidea, Didemnidae)
With symbiotic Prochloron didemni

http://university.uog.edu/botany/474/cyano/prochloron.html
 Lissoclinum patella (Ascidea)
with symbiotic cyanobacteria (e.g. Prochloron didemni)

www.eol.org/pages/65008
 Spongilla lacustris (Porifera)
with symbiotic Chlorella (Chlorophyceae)

Jim Novak
www.biolib.cz/en/image/id18059/
 Potential Acquisition of Replacement Symbionts
e.g., Prochloron or Chlorella

. Would require host to recognize new symbiont

immunologically as “self”

. Would require symbiont to recognize new host

immunologically as “self”

. Would require new symbiont to be adapted to reproduce

inside host tissue, even if only asexually

. Host would have to be adapted to produce nutrients in

concentrations acceptable to the symbiont

. Symbiont would have to be adapted to accept nutrients from

host – in a balanced manner
 Potential Acquisition of Replacement Symbionts
e.g., Prochloron or Chlorella

. Symbiont would have to be adapted to produce O2 and

sugars in the right concentrations for the host.

. Host would have to be able to accept O2 and sugars

from the symbiont

. Host would have to be able to expel the new symbionts

when there was an imbalance in resource transfer or
symbiont mortality.
Has this ever happened before?

Yes.

Three precedents of replacement

Ectomycorrhizal fungi replacing arbuscular
mycorrhizal fungi on tree roots

http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/the-
rhizosphere-roots-soil-and-67500617
 Yeasts replacing Buchnera bacteria in aphids

http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-synthesize-a-new-kind-of- https://theaphidroom.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/figure-
yeast-cell-or-person 1_mandrioli_manicardi.jpg
 Endosymbiotic algae replacing plastids in some
peridinin dinoflagellates.

http://www.polypompholyx.com/wp- http://tolweb.org/onlinecontributors/app?service=external/Vi
content/uploads/2013/05/endosymbiotic_matryoshka.png ewImageData&sp=30254
 Could such a substitution happen again –
particularly in this case?

. Possible, but tall order.

. Imagine rolling this many dice

simultaneously and hoping to come up
with all of them yielding the right formula.

. Probability exceedingly low.

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-illustration-many-dice-
large-group-showing-six-points-image42162002
Oceanic Climatic Zones
Today

http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/images/wsci_01_img0100.jpg
Poleward Migration of Oceanic Climatic Zones

Expansion of Tropical Zone; Movement of Sub-Tropical, Temperate, and

Sub-Polar Zones; Compression of Polar Zones
 Shrinking of
Arctic Polar Cap
and
Permafrost
Boundary

Maps.grida.no/go/graphic/
shift-in-climatic-zones-arctic-
scenario
http://www.cryofthewater.org/images/2.jpg
 Predictions (cont.)

. Emergence of a “Hyper-Tropical Oceanic

Climatic Zone”

. Decrease in species diversity of corals and

other zooxanthellate organisms

- Due to species-specific sensitivity to

increasing seawater temperatures
Possible Emergence of a Hyper-Tropical Zone

Possible introduction of new Hyper-Tropical Zone, and

decrease in species of diversity of corals and
other zooxanthellate organisms therein
 Predictions (cont.)

. No net gain in coral reef cover with time

- Increase in higher latitudes, but –

- High coral mortality in the warmer

regions – lower latitudes

- Probably a decrease in species diversity

overall, due to pushing corals to the
limits of their distribution and mortality
in the hyper-tropical zone.
Thank you

http://www.ageekyworld.com/a-must-visit-place-
great-barrier-reef/
 Predictions
. Latitudinal Expansion of Corals and other temperature-
limited zooxanthellate organisms
- e.g., Acropora cervicornis off Broward County, FL

. Similar observations made in Japan

. Latitudinal limits due to light – PAR in winter?

. Adaptation of zooxanthellae for low light levels

- Mesophotic zones

- Deep-water on Jamaican deep reefs

- Probably acclimation to low light levels insufficient

after a point.
Amphiscolops
langerhansi

(Platyhelmenthes)

Nanozine.blogspot.com/
2007_05_01_archive.html
Coral Bleaching Hotspots
(8/27/05)
http://python2011.globalblogs.org/files/2011/10/dice.jpg
http://www.getting-positive-karma-now.com/about-
the-Nirulas.html
 Implications

Zooxanthellae occur in
hundreds of
marine invertebrate species
 Similar Responses in the

Other two Alcyonacean Species

(with variance)
http://www.care2.com/causes/5-of-the-worlds-most-
endangered-coral-reefs.html
 Outline

I. Coral Reefs and Bleaching – Background

V. Predictions for Extinction of Zooxanthellate Organisms