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Surviving the heatwave

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 19, page 74 (2021)Cite this article

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Marine heatwaves disrupt the association between corals and their photosynthetic algal symbionts, leading to bleaching and the deterioration of coral reefs. Claar et al. investigated factors involved in coral reef resilience to heat stress. They tagged coral colonies at the coral atoll Kiritimati during a prolonged heatwave, at sites spanning varying degrees of anthropogenic disturbances, and quantified the timing of bleaching, recovery and changes in symbiont community composition. Before the heatwave, corals on highly disturbed reefs were dominated by heat-tolerant algal symbionts, whereas those on reefs exposed to less disturbance were dominated by heat-sensitive symbionts. Although the latter colonies bleached quicker, they recovered at increased temperatures, possibly owing to the proliferation of heat-tolerant symbionts. By contrast, corals in highly disturbed areas had no survival advantage or even a lower survival rate. The study thus links anthropogenic disturbance, coral symbioses and heat stress resilience.

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    Andrea Du Toit

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  1. Andrea Du Toit
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Correspondence to Andrea Du Toit.

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Du Toit, A. Surviving the heatwave. Nat Rev Microbiol 19, 74 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-020-00500-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-020-00500-9

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