A survey of pocilloporid corals and their endosymbiotic dinoflagellate communities in the Austral and Cook Islands of the South Pacific
Citation
Mayfield A B, Bruckner A W, Chen C, Chen C (2024). A survey of pocilloporid corals and their endosymbiotic dinoflagellate communities in the Austral and Cook Islands of the South Pacific. Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node. Sampling event dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/8t26j4 accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-09-01.Description
It has recently been uncovered that the model reef coral Pocillopora damicornis is actually a taxonomic complex comprised of multiple species that are difficult to differentiate in situ. However, little is known about the distribution of these species across or within reef ecosystems. To better understand the spatial partitioning between the morphologically-similar sister species P. damicornis and P. acuta, 88 Pocillopora colonies were genotyped across five and three islands/atolls within the Austral and Cook Islands, respectively. A mix of newly described pocilloporid types was found across the two archipelagos, with nearly 33% of the specimens being identified not as the more commonly referenced a genotype of P. damicornis, but instead as P. acuta. Furthermore, P. damicornis was more likely to be found at depths greater than 15 m and in higher coral cover areas relative to P. acuta, suggesting that these closely-related species display distinct habitat preferences.Sampling Description
Study Extent
Austral Islands (French Polynesia) and Cook IslandsSampling
To determine whether the a genotype of P. damicornis is present across a 2,000-km, unexplored region of the South Pacific Ocean, corals most closely resembling the best described morphologies of P. damicornis (Veron, 2000) were collected at each of 30 reef sites across five islands/atolls of French Polynesia’s Austral Islands and each of 30 reefs from three islands/atolls of the Cook Islands in April and May 2013. In the Austral Islands, Raivavae, Tubuai, Rurutu, Rimatara, and Maria were surveyed over the latter half of April 2013. Herein, only the data from Raivavae, Tubuai, Maria, and, to a lesser extent, Rurutu, are presented; reefs of Rurutu and Rimatara had been devastated by a crown of thorns starfish (COTS) outbreak and so few adult corals were present. Indeed, not a single P. damicornis-like coral was found at Rimatara.Method steps
- Corals were typically collected on SCUBA from depths between 10 and 20 m by random swimming, and depth and time of coral collection were determined by a diving computer (Suunto D4). After taking a picture with an Olympus TG-2 underwater camera, small (50-100 mg) biopsies were removed from coral colonies with bone-cutting pliers and placed into sterile, pre-labeled Whirl-Pak® (Nasco) bags. When present, typically 1-3 pocilloporid colonies were sampled at each site, and 123 colonies were sampled across 48 of the 60 sites visited over the 3.5 week-long duration of the cruise. When corals with a P. damicornis-like appearance were not found, P. verrucosa Ellis and Solander or P. meandrina Dana specimens were instead collected; briefly, although the major aim of the study was to sample only colonies resembling P. damicornis, other pocilloporid corals were collected to serve as out-groups in the phylogenetic analyses and to determine whether intra-generic differences in Symbiodinium assemblages could be documented.
- Immediately upon returning to the small craft vessel after a dive, coral biopsies were minced with bone-cutting pliers or tweezers, immersed in RNALater® (Life Technologies), and stored at -20 or 4°C for several hours. Upon return to the M.Y. Golden Shadow, samples were homogenized in RNALater with mortars and pestles as in Mayfield et al. (2013b). Homogenized tissues + skeleton in RNALater were frozen in an -80°C freezer onboard the ship for several weeks. Then, they were transferred to a -150°C liquid nitrogen dry shipper (Doble 20 model, Chart Biomedical), exported under CITES permit FR1398700102-E (to ABM), and transferred on a commercial airline to a -80°C freezer at Taiwan’s National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium (NMMBA), where extractions were later performed.
Additional info
marine, harvested by iOBISTaxonomic Coverages
Geographic Coverages
Austral Islands (French Polynesia) and Cook Islands
Bibliographic Citations
- Mayfield, A.B., Bruckner, A.W., Chen, C. and Chen, C., 2015. A survey of pocilloporid corals and their endosymbiotic dinoflagellate communities in the Austral and Cook Islands of the South Pacific. Platax, 12, pp.1-17. -
Contacts
Anderson B. Mayfieldoriginator
position: Researcher
Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
Landover
20785
MD
US
Andrew W. Bruckner
originator
position: Researcher
Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
Landover
20785
MD
US
Chien-Hsun Chen
originator
position: Researcher
Taiwan Ocean Research Institute, National Applied Research Laboratories
Kaohsiung
85243
TW
Chii-Shiarng Chen
originator
position: Researcher
National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, Checheng
Pingtung
944
TW
Anderson B. Mayfield
metadata author
position: Researcher
Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
Landover
20785
MD
US
Anderson B. Mayfield
administrative point of contact
position: Researcher
Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
Landover
20785
MD
US