Shifting in the Dominant Bacterial Group Is Independent of the Dissociation With Coral Symbiont Algae.

The coral-associated are dominant bacteria in the coral holobiont. Their relative abundance usually decreases with heat-induced coral bleaching and is proposed to be positively correlated with Symbiodiniaceae abundance. It remains unclear whether this phenomenon of decreased abundance is caused by temperature stress or a decreased abundance of Symbiodiniaceae.

Toxicological effects of two organic ultraviolet filters and a related commercial sunscreen product in adult corals.

Corals are exposed to organic ultraviolet (UV) filters and other personal care product (PCP) ingredients in the environment, but the toxicities of organic UV filters and their related PCP to corals are not well understood. In this study, 7-day exposures were conducted to evaluate the toxicities and bioaccumulation of two organic UV filters, ethylhexylmethoxy-cinnamate (EHMC; octinoxate) and octocrylene (OC) (single- and combined-chemical tests), and diluted sunscreen wash-off water containing both active ingredients to the adult life stage of two hard coral species, Seriatopora caliendrum and Pocillopora damicornis. In the single-chemical tests, death (33.

Comparative toxicities of four benzophenone ultraviolet filters to two life stages of two coral species.

The benzophenone (BP) organic ultraviolet (UV) filters have been measured in seawater at ng/L to μg/L levels, but more data on their effects in non-target marine organisms are needed. Corals can be exposed to BPs due to wastewater discharges and coastal recreational activities. In this study, toxicities and bioaccumulation of BP-1 (2,4-dihydroxybenzophenone), BP-3 (oxybenzone), BP-4 (sulisobenzone) and BP-8 (dioxybenzone) to larvae and adults of two coral species, Pocillopora damicornis and Seriatopora caliendrum, were assessed at concentrations ranging from 0.

Towards Automated Annotation of Benthic Survey Images: Variability of Human Experts and Operational Modes of Automation.

Global climate change and other anthropogenic stressors have heightened the need to rapidly characterize ecological changes in marine benthic communities across large scales. Digital photography enables rapid collection of survey images to meet this need, but the subsequent image annotation is typically a time consuming, manual task. We investigated the feasibility of using automated point-annotation to expedite cover estimation of the 17 dominant benthic categories from survey-images captured at four Pacific coral reefs.