Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Related Publications
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Project Information
• Funding

This dataset includes the microsatellite locus allele size for Breviolum antillogorgium cultures isolated from the octocoral Antillogorgia bipinnata and used in 2018 growth experiments to compare growth at 26 and 30 degrees C.;

Breviolum antillogorgium cultures were initially isolated from Antillogorgia bipinnata colonies collected at in the upper Florida Reef tract at Elbow Reef (N 25 07.956 W 80 15.810) in September 2016. Culture isolations and cell growth experimentation occurred in the Coffroth lab, University at Buffalo.

DNA was extracted from symbiont cells following Coffroth et al. (1992) and re-suspended in TE buffer (5-15µl, diluted to a concentration of 5ng/µl). Symbionts were characterized using six polymorphic microsatellite loci, B7SYM4, B7SYM8, B7Sym34, B7Sym36, CA6.38 and GV-1C following the protocols of Pettay and LaJeunesse (2007), Andras et al (2009) and Santos et al (2003b).

BCO-DMO Processing notes:
- added conventional header with dataset name, PI name, version date
- modified parameter names to conform with BCO-DMO naming conventions
- converted latitude and longitude to decimal degrees

Description from NSF award abstract:
On coral reefs, mutualisms with single celled algae (Symbiodinium) and reef species literally and figuratively form the foundation of reef ecosystems. Coral reefs are among the most threatened ecosystems under a changing climate and are rapidly declining due to increasing levels of environmental stress, namely increased temperatures. Climate change is resulting in even warmer ocean temperatures that threaten associations between Symbiodinium and their hosts. In this project the investigators examine the genetic diversity of Symbiodinium and the potential for this important species to evolve in response to temperature. The project will also address whether the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of the Symbiodinium population affect the performance of their host. If so, this suggests that the evolution of microscopic organisms with short generation times could confer adaptation to longer-lived host species on ecologically and economically vital coral reefs. Given that diversity is already being lost on many reefs, considering how evolutionary changes in Symbiodinium will affect reef species is crucial for predicting the responses of reefs to future climate change. This project provides training for two graduate students and several undergraduates at a Hispanic-serving institution. This work includes outreach to the students and the general public through the Aquarium of Niagara, local K-12 schools, and web-based education modules.

The effects of evolution on contemporary ecological processes are at the forefront of research in evolutionary ecology. This project will answer the call for experiments elucidating the effects of genetic variation in Symbiodinium performance and the effect on the response of the holobiont (host and symbiont) to increased temperature. These experiments examine the effects of temperature through both ecological and evolutionary mechanisms and will determine the relative importance of adaptation and acclimatization in replicated experimental populations. The investigators will examine how genetic variation within a species (Symbiodinium antillogorgium) affects symbiont performance in culture and in the host and how this affects the response of the holobiont to increased temperature. Further, the project examines whether holobiont response to increased temperature associated with climate change depends on particular GxG host-symbiont combinations. Moreover, the investigators will examine the effects of symbiont history on mutualist hosts, which have been largely ignored in eco-evolutionary studies. These experiments provide a first step in predicting whether invertebrate hosts on coral reefs will respond to global change via adaptation of their symbionts.