Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T00:35:31.041Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Comparison of the effects of thermal stress and CO2-driven acidified seawater on fertilization in coral Acropora digitifera

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2014

Akira Iguchi ,
Atsushi Suzuki ,
Kazuhiko Sakai  and
Yukihiro Nojiri
Akira Iguchi*
Affiliation:
Okinawa National College of Technology, 905 Henoko, Nago-City, Okinawa 905–2192, Japan.
Atsushi Suzuki
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba 305–8567, Japan.
Kazuhiko Sakai
Affiliation:
Sesoko Station, Tropical Biosphere Research Center, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa 905–0227, Japan.
Yukihiro Nojiri
Affiliation:
Center for Global Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan.
*
All correspondence to: Akira Iguchi. Okinawa National College of Technology, 905 Henoko, Nago-City, Okinawa 905–2192, Japan. Tel: +81 980 55 4205. Fax: +81 980 55 4012. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Global warming (GW) and ocean acidification (OA) have been recognized as severe threats for reef-building corals that support coral reef ecosystems, but these effects on the early life history stage of corals are relatively unknown compared with the effects on calcification of adult corals. In this study, we evaluated the effects of thermal stress and CO2-driven acidified seawater on fertilization in a reef-building coral, Acropora digitifera. The fertilization rates of A. digitifera decreased in response to thermal stress compared with those under normal seawater conditions. In contrast, the changes of fertilization rates were not evident in the acidified seawater. Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) predicted that sperm/egg crosses and temperature were explanatory variables in the best-fitted model for the fertilization data. In the best model, interactions between thermal stress and acidified seawater on the fertilization rates were not selected. Our results suggested that coral fertilization is more sensitive to future GW than OA. Taking into consideration the previous finding that sperm motility of A. digitifera was decreased by acidified seawater, the decrease in coral cover followed by that of sperm concentration might cause the interacting effects of GW and OA on coral fertilization.

Keywords

CoralFertilizationGlobal warmingInteractionOcean acidification
Type
Short Communication
Information
Zygote , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , August 2015 , pp. 631 - 634
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albright, R. & Mason, B. (2013). Projected near-future levels of temperature and pCO2 reduce coral fertilization success. PLoS One 8, e56468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Albright, R., Mason, B., Miller, M. & Langdon, C. (2010). Ocean acidification compromises recruitment success of the threatened Caribbean coral Acropora palmata. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107, 20400–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burnham, K.P. & Anderson, D.R. (2002). Model Selection and Multimodel Inference. 2nd edn, 488 pp. UK: Springer.Google Scholar
Chua, C.M., Leggat, W., Moya, A. & Baird, A.H. (2013). Temperature affects the early life history stages of corals more than near future ocean acidification. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 475, 85–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fujita, K., Hikami, M., Suzuki, A., Kuroyanagi, A., Sakai, K., Kawahata, H. & Nojiri, Y. (2011). Effects of ocean acidification on calcification of symbiont-bearing reef foraminifers. Biogeosciences 8, 2089−98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoegh-Guldberg, O. (1999). Coral bleaching, climate change, and the future of the world's coral reefs. Mar. Freshwater Res. 50, 839–66.Google Scholar
Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Mumby, P.J., Hooten, A.J., Steneck, R.S., Greenfield, P., Gomez, E., Harvell, C.D., Sale, P.F., Edwards, A.J., Caldeira, K., Knowlton, N., Eakin, C.M., Iglesias-Prieto, R., Muthiga, N., Bradbury, R.H., Dubi, A. and Hatziolos, M.E. (2007). Coral reefs under rapid climate change and ocean acidification. Science 318, 1737–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iguchi, A., Morita, M., Nakajima, Y., Nishikawa, A. & Miller, D.J. (2009). In vitro fertilization efficiency in coral Acropora digitifera. Zygote 17, 225–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iguchi, A., Márquez, L.M., Knack, B., Shinzato, C., van Oppen, M.J.H., Willis, B.L., Catmull, J., Hardie, K. & Miller, D.J. (2007). Apparent involvement of a β1 type integrin in coral fertilization. Mar. Biotech. 9, 760–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2007). The Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kleypas, J.A., Feely, R.A., Fabry, V.J., Langdon, C., Sabine, C.L. & Robbins, L.L. (2006). Impacts of ocean acidification on coral reefs and other marine calcifiers: a guide for future research. Report of a workshop held 18–20 April 2005, sponsored by NSF, NOAA, and the US Geological Survey, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA.Google Scholar
Levitan, D.R. & Petersen, C. (1995). Sperm limitation in the sea. Trends Ecol. Evol. 10, 228–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, E. & Wallace, D.W.R. (1998). Program developed for CO2 system calculations, ORNL/CDIAC-105. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.Google Scholar
Morita, M., Nishikawa, A., Nakajima, A., Iguchi, A., Sakai, K., Takemura, A. & Okuno, M. (2006). Eggs regulate sperm flagellar motility initiation, chemotaxis, and inhibition in the coral, Acropora digitifera, A. gemmifera, and A. tenuis. J. Exp. Biol. 209, 4574–9.Google ScholarPubMed
Morita, M., Suwa, R., Iguchi, A., Nakamura, M., Shimada, K., Sakai, K. & Suzuki, A. (2010). Ocean acidification reduces sperm flagellar motility in broadcast spawning reef invertebrates. Zygote 18, 103–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nakajima, Y., Nishikawa, A., Iguchi, A. & Sakai, K. (2010). Gene flow and genetic diversity of a broadcast-spawning coral in northern peripheral populations. PLoS One 5, e11149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Negri, A.P., Marshall, P.A. & Heyward, A.J. (2007). Differing effects of thermal stress on coral fertilization and early embryogenesis in four Indo Pacific species. Coral Reefs 26, 759–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Omori, M., Fukami, H., Kobinata, H. & Hatta, M. (2001). Significant drop of fertilization of Acropora corals in 1999: an after-effect of heavy coral bleaching? Limnol. Oceanogr. 46, 704–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
R Development Core Team (2011). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3–900051–07–0, URL http://www.R-project.org.Google Scholar
Suwa, R., Nakamura, M., Morita, M., Shimada, K., Iguchi, A., Sakai, K. & Suzuki, A. (2010). Effects of acidified seawater on early life stages of scleractinian corals (Genus Acropora). Fish. Sci. 76, 93–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veron, J.E.N. (2000). Corals of the World. Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Australia.Google Scholar
Wallace, C.C. (1999). Staghorn Corals of the World: A Revision of the Genus Acropora. Collingwood, Australia: CSIRO Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willis, B.L., Babcock, R.C., Harrison, P.L. & Wallace, C.C. (1997). Experimental hybridization and breeding incompatibilities within the mating systems of mass spawning reef corals. Coral Reefs 16:Suppl., S53–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar