Functional diversity of microboring Ostreobium algae isolated from corals.

The filamentous chlorophyte Ostreobium sp. dominates shallow marine carbonate microboring communities, and is one of the major agents of reef bioerosion. While its large genetic diversity has emerged, its physiology remains little known, with unexplored relationship between genotypes and phenotypes (endolithic versus free-living growth forms).

Surface ocean pH variations since 1689 CE and recent ocean acidification in the tropical South Pacific.

Increasing atmospheric CO from man-made climate change is reducing surface ocean pH. Due to limited instrumental measurements and historical pH records in the world's oceans, seawater pH variability at the decadal and centennial scale remains largely unknown and requires documentation. Here we present evidence of striking secular trends of decreasing pH since the late nineteenth century with pronounced interannual to decadal-interdecadal pH variability in the South Pacific Ocean from 1689 to 2011 CE.

Early skeletal colonization of the coral holobiont by the microboring Ulvophyceae Ostreobium sp.

Ostreobium sp. (Bryopsidales, Ulvophyceae) is a major microboring alga involved in tropical reef dissolution, with a proposed symbiotic lifestyle in living corals. However, its diversity and colonization dynamics in host's early life stages remained unknown.

The three steps of the carbonate biogenic dissolution process by microborers in coral reefs (New Caledonia).

Biogenic dissolution of carbonates by microborers is one of the main destructive forces in coral reefs and is predicted to be enhanced by eutrophication and ocean acidification by 2100. The chlorophyte Ostreobium sp., the main agent of this process, has been reported to be one of the most responsive of all microboring species to those environmental factors.