Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies

This study characterizes the bacterial microbiome of symbiotic and menthol-bleached Galaxea fascicularis corals from different regions, finding distinct microbiomes between colonies and a stochastic response to bleaching.

This study examines how sediment source and dose affect the survival and settlement of Orbicella faveolata larvae, finding that port sediments cause more harm than reef sediments, even at lower doses.

The paper models larval dispersal in the southwest Indian Ocean, finding that currents and geography create clusters of connected reefs, with the Chagos Archipelago playing a key role in larval exchange.

The paper applies a novel metagenomics analysis to SCTLD lesions and healthy tissues to identify disease-associated microbiome members.

The paper identifies transcriptomic changes in Porites lobata across a sedimentation threshold, revealing molecular mechanisms for stress tolerance and resilience in turbid environments.

This study examines microbiome variation in deep-water octocorals across environmental gradients, finding significant effects of depth, location, and host genotype on microbial communities.

This study examines seasonal changes and environmental influences on tissue and mucus microbiomes of Acropora pulchra, finding that rainfall and pollution affect microbiome diversity and composition differently between tissue and mucus.

This study quantifies polar exometabolites on coral reefs using chemical derivatization and mass spectrometry, identifying 23 previously undetected metabolites and showing geographic variability.

This study investigates the relationship between photosymbiont density and immune responses in the coral Astrangia poculata, finding positive associations between symbiont density and both constitutive and induced immunity.

This study examines how extended marine heatwaves affect two coral species, showing species-specific physiological responses and legacy effects.

This study examines how antibiotic exposure affects the microbiome and fitness of the sea anemone Exaiptasia diaphana, showing reduced microbial load and host fitness, with partial recovery leading to a less diverse but more stable microbiome.

The paper models marine larval dispersal to assess MPA network connectivity and shows that existing MPAs in British Columbia meet connectivity criteria for nearshore species.

This paper uses genome skimming to extract phylogenetically informative loci from coral samples, resolving phylogenetic relationships and supporting taxonomic revisions.

This paper introduces RootPainter, an interactive machine learning tool for marine image analysis, demonstrating its accuracy and efficiency in measuring sponges in underwater images.

This study uses a process-based model to show that environmental fluctuations and conspecific density-dependence, not species interactions, drive coral reef fish community dynamics.

This paper develops a coral disease risk forecasting system using ecological and environmental data to predict disease risk in coral reefs, showing improved accuracy compared to previous systems.

This study shows that host starvation and in hospite algal symbiont degradation are key factors in the heat stress response of Cassiopea, leading to 'invisible bleaching' due to body shrinkage.

This study investigates whether changes in gene body methylation (GBM) correlate with gene expression plasticity in corals during heat acclimatization, finding no significant association.

This study examines transcriptomic responses to sediment stress in branching and massive corals across different locations, finding species-specific and morphological differences in gene expression.

This study shows heat stress disrupts acid-base homeostasis in the sea anemone Exaiptasia diaphana regardless of symbiont presence, indicating climate change impacts beyond bleaching.

The paper uses biophysical modeling to assess how temperature and food influence larval dispersal and connectivity in French Polynesia's fragmented archipelagos, finding that environmental factors constrain dispersal but regional patterns remain largely unchanged.

The paper uses machine learning to predict coral bleaching severity using bio-optical metrics from Acropora palmata, showing significant correlation between fluorescence-based phenotypes and bleaching outcomes.

This study measures calcification and productivity in mesophotic reefs to assess their response to carbonate chemistry variability.

This study examines how coral surface geometry affects light exposure, photoacclimation, and photosynthetic energy acquisition in zooxanthellate corals.

This study identifies a vertically transmitted, tissue-associated bacterial symbiont in the coral Pocillopora acuta, providing insights into its genomic features and potential benefits to the host.

The paper identifies a Philaster sp. parasite responsible for mass mortality of sea urchins across the Caribbean and Mediterranean, showing its rapid global spread and potential for long-range transmission.

This study analyzes the diversity and functional potential of chlamydiae associated with cnidarians using metabarcoding and metagenome-assembled genomes, revealing an obligate intracellular lifestyle and lack of unique genes.

This paper predicts the spatio-temporal distribution of deep-sea coral and sponge microbiomes using environmental, host, and microbiome data across 214 years.

This study examines how coral hosts, symbiotic algae, and bacteria respond to daily temperature fluctuations and continuous warming, finding that diurnal fluctuations may reduce heat stress and bacterial response changes.

This study tracks recovery trajectories of two coral species after multiple marine heatwaves, finding divergent recovery patterns between species and within species based on bleaching resistance.