Document Type

Abstract

Publication Date

2025

DOI

10.5343/bms.2024.0122

Publication Title

Bulletin of Marine Science

Volume

101

Issue

1

Pages

833-834

Conference Name

5th Asia-Pacific Coral Reef Symposium, 19-23 June 2025, Nus, Singapore

Abstract

Coral reefs are vital marine ecosystems that support many different species and ecosystem services through protecting coastlines from storms and erosion, providing raw materials for medication, and facilitating diversity amongst marine species. Anthropogenic climate change is causing ocean temperatures to exceed the range of coral thermal tolerance resulting in more coral bleaching events globally. However, some corals have the capacity to withstand high temperatures through different thermal tolerance strategies. A balanced microbial community plays a critical role in coral health and recent studies have indicated that a balanced microbiome is associated with temperature-stress tolerant corals. Yet, there is a severe lack of understanding of how corals respond to temperature shifts based on the bacteria present. This research utilizes 16s rRNA sequencing to characterize the microbial community in Porites astreoides from two populations in the Florida Keys. Samples were collected from an inshore and offshore site with documented differences in thermal tolerance. Coral microbial communities were compared between populations for differences in community structure and to identify unique microbial assemblages that could potentially aid in coral thermal tolerance. Results from this project give valuable insight into bacteria may be associated with thermal tolerance which can help with overall coral reef restoration efforts.

Comments

Part of the work Abstracts - 5th Asia-Pacific Coral Reef Symposium, available online at https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2024.0122

Rights

© 2025 The Authors.

This article is Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND) license.

Original Publication Citation

Caldwell, S., Parker, K., & Barshis, D. (2025). Analyzing microbial communities in Porites astreoides. Bulletin of Marine Science, 101(1), 833-834. https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2024.0122

ORCID

0000-0003-1510-8375 (Barshis)

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