Declining health of scleractinian corals in response to deteriorating environmental conditions is widely acknowledged, however links between physiological and functional genomic responses of corals are less well understood. Here we explore growth and the expression of 20 target genes with putative roles in metabolism and calcification in the branching coral, Acropora millepora, in two separate experiments: 1) elevated pCO2 (464, 822, 1187 and 1638 $μ$atm) and ambient temperature (27 °C), and 2) elevated pCO2 (490 and 822 $μ$atm) and temperature (28 and 31 °C).
Ocean acidification (OA) is one of the main consequences of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), impacting key biological processes of marine organisms such as development, growth and immune response. However, there are scarce studies on the influence of OA on marine invertebrates' ability to cope with pathogens. This study evaluated the single and combined effects of OA and bacterial infection on the transcription expression of genes related to antioxidant system, antimicrobial peptides and pattern recognition receptors in the edible mussel Mytilus chilensis. Individuals of M.
As global ocean change progresses, reef-building corals and their early life history stages will rely on physiological plasticity to tolerate new environmental conditions. Larvae from brooding coral species contain algal symbionts upon release, which assist with the energy requirements of dispersal and metamorphosis. Global ocean change threatens the success of larval dispersal and settlement by challenging the performance of the larvae and of the symbiosis.
The physiological response to individual and combined stressors of elevated temperature and pCO2 were measured over a 24-day period in four Pacific corals and their respective symbionts (Acropora millepora/Symbiodinium C21a, Pocillopora damicornis/Symbiodinium C1c-d-t, Montipora monasteriata/Symbiodinium C15, and Turbinaria reniformis/Symbiodinium trenchii). Multivariate analyses indicated that elevated temperature played a greater role in altering physiological response, with the greatest degree of change occurring within M. monasteriata and T. reniformis.