Description: Global warming is considered to be the most severe threat to coral reefs globally, which makes it important for scientists to develop novel strategies that mitigate the impact of warming on corals and associated habitats. Artificial upwelling of cooler deep water to the surface layer may be a possible mitigation/management tool. In this study, we investigated the effect of simulated artificial upwelling with deep water off Bermuda collected at 50 m (24°C) and 100 m (20°C) on coral symbiont biology of 3 coral species (Montastrea cavernosa, Porites astreoides, and Pseudodiploria strigosa) in a temperature stress experiment. The following treatments were applied over a period of 3 weeks: (i) control at 28°C (ii) heat at 31°C, (iii) heat at 31°C+ deep water from 50 m depth, and (iv) heat at 31°C+ deep water from 100 m depth. Artificial upwelling was simulated over a period of 25 min on a daily basis resulting in a reduction of temperature for 2 h per day and the following degree-heating-weeks: 5.7°C-weeks for ii, 4.6°C-weeks for iii and 4.2°C-weeks for iv. Comparative analysis of photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll-a concentration and zooxanthellae density revealed a reduction of heat stress responses in artificial upwelling treatments in 2 of the 3 investigated species, and a stronger positive effect of 100-m water than 50-m water. These results indicate that artificial upwelling could be an effective strategy to mitigate coral bleaching during heat stress events allowing corals to adjust to increasing temperatures more gradually. It will still be necessary to further explore the ecological benefits as well as potential ecosystem impacts associated with different artificial upwelling scenarios to carefully implement an effective in situ artificial upwelling strategy in coral reefs.

Description: Artificial upwelling (AU) is a novel geoengineering technology that brings seawater from the deep ocean to the surface. Within the context of global warming, AU techniques are proposed to reduce sea surface temperature at times of thermal stress around coral reefs. A computationally fast but coarse 3D Earth System model (3.6° longitude × 1.8° latitude) was used to investigate the environmental impacts of hypothetically implemented AU strategies in the Great Barrier Reef, South China Sea, and Hawaiian regions. While omitting the discussion on sub-grid hydrology, we simulated in our model a water translocation from either 130 or 550 m depth to sea surface at rates of 1 or 50 m3 s−1 as analogues to AU implementation. Under the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 emissions scenario from year 2020 on, the model predicted a prevention of coral bleaching until the year 2099 when AU was implemented, except under the least intense AU scenario (water from 130 m depth at 1 m3 s−1). Yet, intense AU implementation (water from 550 m depth at 50 m3 s-1) will likely have adverse effects on coral reefs by overcooling the surface water, altering salinity, decreasing calcium carbonate saturation, and considerably increasing nutrient levels. Our result suggests that if we utilize AU for mitigating coral bleaching during heat stress, AU implementation needs to be carefully designed with respect to AU’s location, depth, intensity and duration so that undesirable environmental effects are minimized. Following a proper installation and management procedure, however, AU has the potential to decelerate destructive bleaching events and buy corals more time to adjust to climate change.

Description: Coral-based reconstructions of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) using Sr/Ca, U/Ca and δ18O are important tools for quantitative analysis of past climate variabilities. However, post-depositional alteration of coral aragonite, particularly early diagenesis, restrict the accuracy of calibrated proxies even on young corals. Considering the diagenetic effects, we present new Mid to Late Holocene SST reconstructions on well-dated (U/Th: ∼70 yr to 5.4 ka) fossil Porites sp. collected from the Society Islands, French Polynesia. For few corals, quality pre-screening routines revealed the presence of secondary aragonite needles inside primary pore space, resulting in a mean increase in Sr/Ca ratios between 5-30%, in contrast to the massive skeletal parts. Characterized by a Sr/Ca above 10 mmol/mol, we interpret this value as the threshold between diagenetically altered and unaltered coral material. At a high-resolution, observed intra-skeletal variability of 5.4 to 9.9 mmol/mol probably reflects the physiological control of corals over their trace metal uptake, and individual variations controlled by CaCO3– precipitation rates. Overall, the Sr/Ca, U/Ca and δ18O trends are well correlated, but we observed a significant offset up to ± 7°C among the proxies on derived palaeo-SST estimates. It appears that the related alteration process tends to amplify temperature extremes, resulting in increased SST-U/Ca and SST-Sr/Ca gradients, and consequently their apparent temperature sensitivities. A relative SST reconstruction is still feasible by normalizing our records to their individual mean value defined as ΔSST. This approach shows that ΔSST records derived from different proxies agree with an amplitudinal variability of up to ± 2°C with respect to their Holocene mean value. Higher ΔSST values than the mean SSTs (Holocene warm periods) were recorded from ∼1.8 to ∼2.8 ka (Interval I), ∼3.7 to 4.0 ka (Interval III) and before ∼5 ka, while lower ΔSST values (Holocene cold periods, Interval II and IV) were recorded in between. The ensuing SST periodicity of ∼1.5 ka in the Society Islands record is in line with the solar activity reconstructed from 10Be and 14C production (Vonmoos et al., 2006), emphasizing the role of solar activity on climate variability during the Late Holocene.

Description: Corals exert a strong biological control over their calcification processes, but there is a lack of knowledge on their capability of long-term acclimatization to ocean acidification (OA). We used a dual geochemical proxy approach to estimate the calcifying fluid pH (pHcf) and carbonate chemistry of a Mediterranean coral (Balanophyllia europaea) naturally growing along a pH gradient (range: pHTS 8.07–7.74). The pHcf derived from skeletal boron isotopic composition (δ11B) was 0.3–0.6 units above seawater values and homogeneous along the gradient (mean ± SEM: Site 1 = 8.39 ± 0.03, Site 2 = 8.34 ± 0.03, Site 3 = 8.34 ± 0.02). Also carbonate ion concentration derived from B/Ca was homogeneous [mean ± SEM (μmol kg–1): Site 1 = 579 ± 34, Site 2 = 541 ± 27, Site 3 = 568 ± 30] regardless of seawater pH. Furthermore, gross calcification rate (GCR, mass of CaCO3 deposited on the skeletal unit area per unit of time), estimated by a “bio-inorganic model” (IpHRAC), was homogeneous with decreasing pH. The homogeneous GCR, internal pH and carbonate chemistry confirm that the features of the “building blocks” – the fundamental structural components – produced by the biomineralization process were substantially unaffected by increased acidification. Furthermore, the pH up-regulation observed in this study could potentially explain the previous hypothesis that less “building blocks” are produced with increasing acidification ultimately leading to increased skeletal porosity and to reduced net calcification rate computed by including the total volume of the pore space. In fact, assuming that the available energy at the three sites is the same, this energy at the low pH sites could be partitioned among fewer calicoblastic cells that consume more energy given the larger difference between external and internal pH compared to the control, leading to the production of less building blocks (i.e., formation of pores inside the skeleton structure, determining increased porosity). However, we cannot exclude that also dissolution may play a role in increasing porosity. Thus, the ability of scleractinian corals to maintain elevated pHcf relative to ambient seawater might not always be sufficient to counteract declines in net calcification under OA scenarios.

Description: In coastal marine environments, physical and biological forces can cause dynamic pH fluctuations from microscale (diffusive boundary layer [DBL]) up to ecosystem‐scale (benthic boundary layer [BBL]). In the face of ocean acidification (OA), such natural pH variations may modulate an organism's response to OA by providing temporal refugia. We investigated the effect of pH fluctuations, generated by the brown alga Fucus serratus' biological activity, on the calcifying epibionts Balanus improvisus and Electra pilosa under OA. For this, both epibionts were grown on inactive and biologically active surfaces and exposed to (1) constant pH scenarios under ambient (pH 8.1) or OA conditions (pH 7.7), or (2) oscillating pH scenarios mimicking BBL conditions at ambient (pH 7.7–8.6) or OA scenarios (pH 7.4–8.2). Furthermore, all treatment combinations were tested at 10°C and 15°C. Against our expectations, OA treatments did not affect epibiont growth under constant or fluctuating (BBL) pH conditions, indicating rather high robustness against predicted OA scenarios. Furthermore, epibiont growth was hampered and not fostered on active surfaces (fluctuating DBL conditions), indicating that fluctuating pH conditions of the DBL with elevated daytime pH do not necessarily provide temporal refugia from OA. In contrast, results indicate that factors other than pH may play larger roles for epibiont growth on macrophytes (e.g., surface characteristics, macrophyte antifouling defense, or dynamics of oxygen and nutrient concentrations). Warming enhanced epibiont growth rates significantly, independently of OA, indicating no synergistic effects of pH treatments and temperature within their natural temperature range.

Description: Marine coastal zones are highly productive, and dominated by engineer species (e.g. macrophytes, molluscs, corals) that modify the chemistry of their surrounding seawater via their metabolism, causing substantial fluctuations in oxygen, dissolved inorganic carbon, pH, and nutrients. The magnitude of these biologically driven chemical fluctuations is regulated by hydrodynamics, can exceed values predicted for the future open ocean, and creates chemical patchiness in subtidal areas at various spatial (µm to meters) and temporal (minutes to months) scales. Although the role of hydrodynamics is well explored for planktonic communities, its influence as a crucial driver of benthic organism and community functioning is poorly addressed, particularly in the context of ocean global change. Hydrodynamics can directly modulate organismal physiological activity or indirectly influence an organism's performance by modifying its habitat. This review addresses recent developments in (i) the influence of hydrodynamics on the biological activity of engineer species, (ii) the description of chemical habitats resulting from the interaction between hydrodynamics and biological activity, (iii) the role of these chemical habitat as refugia against ocean acidification and deoxygenation, and (iv) how species living in such chemical habitats may respond to ocean global change. Recommendations are provided to integrate the effect of hydrodynamics and environmental fluctuations in future research, to better predict the responses of coastal benthic ecosystems to ongoing ocean global change.

Description: Pocillopora damicornis (Linnaeus, 1758), a species complex, consists of several genetic lineages, some of which likely represent reproductively isolated species, including the species Pocillopora acuta Lamarck, 1816. Pocillopora acuta can exhibit similar morphological characteristics as P. damicornis, thus making it difficult to identify species-level taxonomic units. To determine whether the P. damicornis-like colonies on the reefs in the Andaman Sea (previously often identified as P. damicornis) consist of different species, we sampled individual colonies at five sites along a 50 km coastal stretch at Phuket Island and four island sites towards Krabi Province, Thailand. We sequenced 210 coral samples for the mitochondrial open reading frame and identified six distinct haplotypes, all belonging to P. acuta according to the literature. Recently, P. acuta was observed to efficiently recolonize heat-damaged reefs in Thailand as well as globally, making it a potentially important coral species in future reefs. Specifically in the light of global change, this study underscores the importance of high-resolution molecular species recognition, since taxonomic units are important factors for population genetic studies, and the latter are crucial for management and conservation efforts.

Description: Benthic suspension feeders like corals and sponges are important bioengineers in many marine habitats, from the shallow tropics to the depth of polar oceans. While they are generally considered opportunistic, little is known about their actual in situ diet. To tackle this limitation, fatty acid trophic markers (FATMs) have been employed to gain insights into the composition of their diet. Yet, these in situ studies have not been combined with physiological investigations to understand how physiological limitations may modulate the biochemistry of these organisms. Here, we used the cold-water coral (CWC) Desmophyllum dianthus in its natural habitat in Comau Fjord (Northern Patagonia, Chile) as our model species to assess the trophic ecology in response to contrasting physico-chemical conditions (variable vs. stable) and ecological drivers (food availability) at three shallow sites and one deep site. We took advantage of the expression of two distinct phenotypes with contrasting performance (growth, biomass, respiration) coinciding with the differences in sampling depth. We analysed the corals' fatty acid composition to evaluate the utility of FATM profiles to gain dietary insights and assess how performance trade-offs potentially modulate an organism's FATM composition. We found that 20:1(n-9) zooplankton markers dominated the deep high-performance phenotype, while 20:5(n-3) and 22:6(n-3) diatom and flagellate markers, respectively, are more prominent in shallow low-performance phenotype. Surprisingly, both energy stores and performance were higher in the deep phenotype, in spite of measured lower zooplankton availability. Essential FA concentrations were conserved across sites, likely reflecting required levels for coral functioning and survival. While the deep high-performance phenotype met with these requirements, the low-performance phenotype appeared to need more energy to maintain functionality in its highly variable environment, potentially causing intrinsic re-allocations of energy and enrichment in certain essential markers (20:5(n-3), 22:6(n-3)). Our analysis highlights the biological and ecological insights that can be gained from FATM profiles in CWCs, but also cautions the reliability of FATM as diet tracers under limiting environmental conditions that may also be applicable to other marine organisms. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.