Submission Date

5-4-2026

Document Type

Paper

Department

Biology

Adviser

Colleen Bove

Committee Member

Leah Joseph

Committee Member

Dale Cameron

Committee Member

Matthew Leslie

Department Chair

Denise Finney

Project Description

Coral holobionts, which include the coral animal host, dinoflagellate algae, bacteria, etc., support coral reef biodiversity by providing habitat to many marine species. In the face of global change, identifying and understanding the microbial diversity of corals is extremely important because their survival indicates overall ocean health. Coral-associated bacterial and algal communities contribute to the health and survival of a coral species through creating resistance to stressors and supplying essential nutrients. As coral reef environments continue to change, microbial communities must respond to ensure the survival of reef-building corals. To investigate if coral microbiomes possess the ability to acclimatize to novel environments, we conducted a five-year reciprocal transplant experiment in Belize using two previously common Caribbean corals: Siderastrea siderea (massive starlet coral) and Pseudodiploria strigosa (symmetrical brain coral). A total of ninety-two coral samples were collected across two distinct reef environments five years after the original transplantation occurred. DNA was extracted using a phenol-chloroform protocol, and the 16S rRNA and ITS2 regions were targeted to characterize the diversity of bacteria (16S) and algal symbiont (ITS2) diversity. The resulting sequence libraries were analyzed using R to evaluate patterns of microbiome community composition across coral species and transplant locations. Evidence of local adaptation in offshore corals was found through observing similarities in the relative abundance of bacterial communities and diversity indices. Further, the presence of cyanobacteria, visualized through relative abundance, in nearshore corals suggests unstable microbiomes potentially due to the more stressful nearshore environment. Implications of this research can be used in rebounding each coral species population by observing how the composition of the microbiome can support changes in environmental conditions, particularly as global change rates increase.

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