Can resistant coral-Symbiodinium associations enable coral communities to survive climate change? A study of a site exposed to long-term hot water input Shashank Keshavmurthy1 , Pei-Jie Meng2,3 , Jih-Terng Wang4 , Chao-Yang Kuo1,5 , Sung-Yin Yang6 , Chia-Min Hsu1,7 , Chai-Hsia Gan1 , Chang-Feng Dai7 and Chaolun Allen Chen1,7,8 1 Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Nangang, Taipei, Taiwan 2 National Museum of Marine Biology/Aquarium, Checheng, Pingtung, Taiwan 3 Institute of Marine Biodiversity and Evolution, National Dong Hwa University, Checheng,
Pingtung, Taiwan 4 Institute of Biotechnology, Tajen University of Science and Technology, Pintung, Taiwan 5 ARC Centre for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia 6 University of Ryukyus, Graduate School of Engineering and Science, Okinawa, Japan 7 Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 8 Taiwan International Graduate Program (TIGP)-Biodiversity, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei,
Taiwan
ABSTRACT
Submitted 30 August 2013 Accepted 11 March 2014 Published 8 April 2014 Corresponding author Chaolun Allen Chen,
[email protected] Academic editor Robert Costanza Additional Information and Declarations can be found on page 21 DOI 10.7717/peerj.327 Copyright 2014 Keshavmurthy et al. Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 3.0
Climate change has led to a decline in the health of corals and coral reefs around the world. Studies have shown that, while some corals can cope with natural and anthropogenic stressors either through resistance mechanisms of coral hosts or through sustainable relationships with Symbiodinium clades or types, many coral species cannot. Here, we show that the corals present in a reef in southern Taiwan, and exposed to long-term elevated seawater temperatures due to the presence of a nuclear power plant outlet (NPP OL), are unique in terms of species and associated Symbiodinium types. At shallow depths (
