SEMINAR: MBF 602 Seminar- J.Ross Cunning THURSDAY, February 18th, 2010 3:00pm S/A seminar room- PLEASE NOTE TIME & DATE CHANGE

[Cary Rios <crios@rsmas.miami.edu>]

Student Seminar date has been moved for this week only!

                             Community dynamics of Symbiodinium in individual coral colonies during a bleaching event

 

                The symbiotic algal community present in a coral host can include many different types of Symbiodinium, each differing in aspects of their physiology such as photosynthetic efficiency, amount of nutrient translocation, and stress tolerance. Thus, important physiological outcomes for the coral host including growth rate, nutritional status, and bleaching susceptibility are dependent on all members of the symbiont community and their relative proportions. However, little is understood of what governs the community dynamics of Symbiodinium within a coral host, or how particular community profiles may affect different aspects of coral physiology. To begin addressing this question, I tracked the ratio of clade D to clade C Symbiodinium present in a population of corals over time through a natural bleaching event. Corals that bleached severely hosted almost exclusively clade C, corals that bleached partially hosted mostly clade D, and corals that did not visually bleach showed virtual dominance of clade D. Corals hosting clade D also increased their D:C ratio over time as temperatures gradually increased leading up to the bleaching event. These preliminary results show that bleaching susceptibility is quantitatively related to Symbiodinium community dynamics, and suggest that understanding Symbiodinium community dynamics will better help us predict coral responses to climate change. With additional quantitative assays currently under development, I propose to further explore the dynamics of mixed Symbiodinium communities in response to environmental variability and stress, and the consequences that these community dynamics have for their coral hosts.

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J. Ross Cunning

B.S. Biology and Environmental Science, Duke University (2007)

Entered Ph.D. program: Fall 2008

 

Advisor: Andrew Baker

Cary Rios 
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