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Symbiotic mutualisms are essential to ecosystems and numerous species across the tree of life. For reef-building corals, the benefits of their association with endosymbiotic dinoflagellates differ within and across taxa, and nutrient exchange between these partners is influenced by environmental conditions. Furthermore, it is widely assumed that corals associated with symbionts in the genusDurusdiniumtolerate high thermal stress at the expense of lower nutrient exchange to support coral growth. We traced both inorganic carbon (H¹³CO₃^–) and nitrate (¹⁵NO₃^–) uptake by divergent symbiont species and quantified nutrient transfer to the host coral under normal temperatures as well as in colonies exposed to high thermal stress. Colonies representative of diverse coral taxa associated withDurusdinium trenchiiorCladocopiumspp. exhibited similar nutrient exchange under ambient conditions. By contrast, heat-exposed colonies withD. trenchiiexperienced less physiological stress than conspecifics withCladocopiumspp. while high carbon assimilation and nutrient transfer to the host was maintained. This discovery differs from the prevailing notion that these mutualisms inevitably suffer trade-offs in physiological performance. These findings emphasize that many host–symbiont combinations adapted to high-temperature equatorial environments are high-functioning mutualisms; and why their increased prevalence is likely to be important to the future productivity and stability of coral reef ecosystems. 

Abstract Coral reefs are declining worldwide, yet some coral populations are better adapted to withstand reductions in pH and the rising frequency of marine heatwaves. The nearshore reef habitats of Palau, Micronesia are a proxy for a future of warmer, more acidic oceans. Coral populations in these habitats can resist, and recover from, episodes of thermal stress better than offshore conspecifics. To explore the physiological basis of this tolerance, we compared tissue biomass (ash-free dry weight cm⁻²), energy reserves (i.e., protein, total lipid, carbohydrate content), and several important lipid classes in six coral species living in both offshore and nearshore environments. In contrast to expectations, a trend emerged of many nearshore colonies exhibiting lower biomass and energy reserves than colonies from offshore sites, which may be explained by the increased metabolic demand of living in a warmer, acidic, environment. Despite hosting different dinoflagellate symbiont species and having access to contrasting prey abundances, total lipid and lipid class compositions were similar in colonies from each habitat. Ultimately, while the regulation of colony biomass and energy reserves may be influenced by factors, including the identity of the resident symbiont, kind of food consumed, and host genetic attributes, these independent processes converged to a similar homeostatic set point under different environmental conditions. 

Coral reefs are among the most diverse and complex ecosystems in the world that provide important ecological and economical services. Increases in sea surface temperature linked to global climate change threatens these ecosystems by inducing coral bleaching. However, it is not fully known if natural intra- or inter-annual physiological variability is linked to bleaching resilience or recovery capacity of corals. Here, we monitored the coral physiology of three common Caribbean species ( Porites divaricata, Porites astreoides, Orbicella faveolata ) at six time points over 2 years by measuring the following traits: calcification, biomass, lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, chlorophyll a , algal endosymbiont density, stable carbon isotopes of the host and endosymbiotic algae, and the stable carbon and oxygen isotopes of the skeleton. The overall physiological profile of all three species varied over time and that of P. divaricata was consistently different from the two other coral species. Porites divaricata had higher energy reserves coupled with higher contributions of heterotrophically derived carbon to host tissues than both P. astreoides and O. faveolata . Consistently higher overall energy reserves and heterotrophic contributions to tissues appear to buffer against environmental stress, including bleaching events. Thus, natural physiological variability among coral species appears to be a stronger predictor of coral bleaching resilience than intra- or inter-annual physiological variability within a coral species. 

There is little information on the impacts of climate change on resource partitioning for mixotrophic phytoplankton. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that light interacts with temperature and CO 2 to affect changes in growth and cellular carbon and nitrogen content of the mixotrophic dinoflagellate, Karlodinium veneficum , with increasing cellular carbon and nitrogen content under low light conditions and increased growth under high light conditions. Using a multifactorial design, the interactive effects of light, temperature and CO 2 were investigated on K . veneficum at ambient temperature and CO 2 levels (25°C, 375 ppm), high temperature (30°C, 375 ppm CO 2 ), high CO 2 (30°C, 750 ppm CO 2 ), or a combination of both high temperature and CO 2 (30°C, 750 ppm CO 2 ) at low light intensities (LL: 70 μmol photons m -2 s -2 ) and light-saturated conditions (HL: 140 μmol photons m -2 s -2 ). Results revealed significant interactions between light and temperature for all parameters. Growth rates were not significantly different among LL treatments, but increased significantly with temperature or a combination of elevated temperature and CO 2 under HL compared to ambient conditions. Particulate carbon and nitrogen content increased in response to temperature or a combination of elevated temperature and CO 2 under LL conditions, but significantly decreased in HL cultures exposed to elevated temperature and/or CO 2 compared to ambient conditions at HL. Significant increases in C:N ratios were observed only in the combined treatment under LL, suggesting a synergistic effect of temperature and CO 2 on carbon assimilation, while increases in C:N under HL were driven only by an increase in CO 2 . Results indicate light-driven variations in growth and nutrient acquisition strategies for K . veneficum that may benefit this species under anticipated climate change conditions (elevated light, temperature and p CO 2 ) while also affecting trophic transfer efficiency during blooms of this species. 

Abstract Active chlorophyllafluorometry is a well‐established tool for noninvasively diagnosing coral functional state, but has not yet been developed as a rapid phenotyping (functional screening) platform as for agriculture and forestry. Here, we present a proof‐of‐concept using Light‐Induced Fluorescence Transient‐Fast Repetition Rate fluorometry (LIFT‐FRRf) to identify coral photobiological‐based phenotypes in the context of rapidly scaling coral propagation practices on the northern Great Barrier Reef. For example, resolving light niche plasticity to inform transplantation, and identifying functionally diverse colonies to maximize stock selection. We first used optically diverse laboratory‐reared corals and coral endosymbiont (Symbiodiniaceae) isolates to develop a phenotyping approach integrating FRRf instantaneous kinetic parameters (light harvesting, electron turnover rates) and light‐dependent parameters (dynamic “quenching” terms, saturating light intensity [E_K]). Subsequent field‐based LIFT‐FRRf phenotyping of coral from a selective (2‐4 m depth) reef habitat revealed that widely topographically dispersed platingAcroporataxa exhibited broad light niche plasticity (E_Kvariance) underpinned by multiple phenotypes that were predominantly differentiated by minimum electron turnover capacity; fluorometer configurations that cannot resolve kinetic parameters will thus likely have more limited capacity to resolve phenotypes. As such, platingAcroporahave broad propagation potential in terms of multiple functional variants for stock and across diverse light environments (growth, transplantation). In contrast, coral taxa (Pocillopora verrucosa,Echinopora lamellosa) with relatively restricted topographic dispersion exhibited less light niche plasticity and only single phenotypes, thereby imposing more constraints for propagation. We discuss the core technical, operational, and conceptual steps required to develop more sophisticated coral phenotyping platforms.