Grottoli Andréa G, Rodrigues Lisa J, Palardy James E
Department of Geological Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA.
Nature. 2006 Apr 27;440(7088):1186-9. doi: 10.1038/nature04565.
Mass coral bleaching events caused by elevated seawater temperatures have resulted in extensive coral mortality throughout the tropics over the past few decades. With continued global warming, bleaching events are predicted to increase in frequency and severity, causing up to 60% coral mortality globally within the next few decades. Although some corals are able to recover and to survive bleaching, the mechanisms underlying such resilience are poorly understood. Here we show that the coral host has a significant role in recovery and resilience. Bleached and recovering Montipora capitata (branching) corals met more than 100% of their daily metabolic energy requirements by markedly increasing their feeding rates and CHAR (per cent contribution of heterotrophically acquired carbon to daily animal respiration), whereas Porites compressa (branching) and Porites lobata (mounding) corals did not. These findings suggest that coral species with high-CHAR capability during bleaching and recovery, irrespective of morphology, will be more resilient to bleaching events over the long term, could become the dominant coral species on reefs, and may help to safeguard affected reefs from potential local and global extinction.
在过去几十年里，海水温度升高引发的大规模珊瑚白化事件导致热带地区的珊瑚大量死亡。随着全球持续变暖，预计白化事件的频率和严重程度将会增加，在未来几十年内全球珊瑚死亡率将高达60%。尽管一些珊瑚能够从白化中恢复并存活下来，但这种恢复力背后的机制却鲜为人知。在此我们表明，珊瑚宿主在恢复和恢复力方面起着重要作用。白化且正在恢复的头状蔷薇珊瑚（分支状）通过显著提高其摄食率和CHAR（异养获取的碳对每日动物呼吸的贡献百分比），满足了超过其每日代谢能量需求的100%，而扁缩鹿角珊瑚（分支状）和瘤状鹿角珊瑚（丘状）则没有。这些发现表明，在白化和恢复过程中具有高CHAR能力的珊瑚物种，无论其形态如何，从长期来看对白化事件的恢复力更强，可能会成为珊瑚礁上的优势珊瑚物种，并可能有助于保护受影响的珊瑚礁免于潜在的局部和全球灭绝。
