Microbiomes are essential features of holobionts, providing their hosts with key metabolic and functional traits like resistance to environmental disturbances and diseases. In scleractinian corals, questions remain about the microbiome's role in resistance and resilience to factors contributing to the ongoing global coral decline and whether microbes serve as a form of holobiont ecological memory. To test if and how coral microbiomes affect host health outcomes during repeated disturbances, we conducted a large‐scale (32 exclosures, 200 colonies, and 3 coral species sampled) and long‐term (28 months, 2018–2020) manipulative experiment on the forereef of Mo'orea, French Polynesia. In 2019 and 2020, this reef experienced the two most severe marine heatwaves on record for the site. Our experiment and these events afforded us the opportunity to test microbiome dynamics and roles in the context of coral bleaching and mortality resulting from these successive and severe heatwaves. We report unique microbiome responses to repeated heatwaves in
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10296479
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- PLOS Biology
- Volume:
- 19
- Issue:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 1545-7885
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- e3001322
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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L. plantarum evolution diverges between insects and mammals. While the symbiosis betweenDrosophila andL. plantarum is mainly determined by the host diet, in mammals, the host and its intrinsic factors play a critical role in selection and influence both the phenotypic and genomic evolution of its gut microbes, as well as the outcome of their symbiosis. -
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