Table of Contents

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

Cell counts of Breviolum antillogorgium cultures isolated from the octocoral Antillogorgia bipinnata by sample and treatment for cultures historically grown at 26 and 30 degrees C and reciprocally grown 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.

A total of six Breviolum antillogorgium genotypes were used in this experiment. Three cultures had been grown at 26 degrees C since isolation in 2016 (16-0590F, 16-0875 and 16-1631) and three had been grown at 30 degrees C since isolation in 2016 (16-0587, 16-0763 and 16-0764). Three replicates of each of the six Breviolum antillogorgium cultures were grown at 26 and 30 C for a total of four treatments (26 degrees at 26 and 30 C and 30 degrees C at 26 and 30 C). A total of four to six replicate counts from each culture was made every three to twelve days using light microscopy and a hemocytometer. Mean symbiont density per ml was calculated.

Data Processing: Mean x 10000 were calculated from the counts.

BCO-DMO Processing notes:- created separate files for each daily cell count
- added columns for Count_5 and Count_6 to data from day 56 to day 83 to match days 1 to 55
- created a toplevel file with date and day from each Excel sheet, which calls the daily files

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.