Long-term growth rates of four Mediterranean cold-water coral species maintained in aquaria

Growth rates of the cold-water corals (CWC) Madrepora oculata, Lophelia pertusa, Desmophyllum dianthus and Dendrophyllia cornigera were measured over 8 mo under controlled conditions (12°C in the dark, fed 5 times a week) by means of the buoyant weight technique. Additionally, linear growth rates were measured in M. oculata and L. pertusa for 2 and 1 yr, respectively. The weight measurements revealed growth rates, expressed as percent growth per day (mean ± SD), of 0.11 ± 0.04 for M. oculata, 0.02 ± 0.01 for L. pertusa, 0.06 ± 0.03 for D. dianthus and 0.04 ± 0.02 % d–1 for D. cornigera. Growth in M. oculata was significantly higher (p < 0.0001) than in the other 3 CWC species. For M. oculata and L. pertusa, also linear growth was recorded. These values (mean ± SD) were 0.014 ± 0.007 and 0.024 ± 0.018 mm d–1 for M. oculata and L. pertusa, respectively. This is the first study that compares the growth rates of 4 different CWC species under the same experimental conditions of water flow, temperature, salinity and food supply. These corals have different growth rates, both in terms of total weight increase and linear increase, and these growth rates can be related to interspecific physiological differences. Data on growth rates are essential to understand the population dynamics of CWC as well as the recovery capacity of these communities after disturbancePublicado

The Tara Pacific expedition-A pan-ecosystemic approach of the "-omics" complexity of coral reef holobionts across the Pacific Ocean

Coral reefs are the most diverse habitats in the marine realm. Their productivity, structural complexity, and biodiversity critically depend on ecosystem services provided by corals that are threatened because of climate change effects-in particular, ocean warming and acidification. The coral holobiont is composed of the coral animal host, endosymbiotic dinoflagellates, associated viruses, bacteria, and other microeukaryotes. In particular, the mandatory photosymbiosis with microalgae of the family Symbiodiniaceae and its consequences on the evolution, physiology, and stress resilience of the coral holobiont have yet to be fully elucidated. The functioning of the holobiont as a whole is largely unknown, although bacteria and viruses are presumed to play roles in metabolic interactions, immunity, and stress tolerance. In the context of climate change and anthropogenic threats on coral reef ecosystems, the Tara Pacific project aims to provide a baseline of the "-omics" complexity of the coral holobiont and its ecosystem across the Pacific Ocean and for various oceanographically distinct defined areas. Inspired by the previous Tara Oceans expeditions, the Tara Pacific expedition (2016-2018) has applied a pan-ecosystemic approach on coral reefs throughout the Pacific Ocean, drawing an east-west transect from Panama to Papua New Guinea and a south-north transect from Australia to Japan, sampling corals throughout 32 island systems with local replicates. Tara Pacific has developed and applied state-of-the-art technologies in very-high-throughput genetic sequencing and molecular analysis to reveal the entire microbial and chemical diversity as well as functional traits associated with coral holobionts, together with various measures on environmental forcing. This ambitious project aims at revealing a massive amount of novel biodiversity, shedding light on the complex links between genomes, transcriptomes, metabolomes, organisms, and ecosystem functions in coral reefs and providing a reference of the biological state of modern coral reefs in the Anthropocene

The Tara Pacific expedition-A pan-ecosystemic approach of the "-omics" complexity of coral reef holobionts across the Pacific Ocean

Coral reefs are the most diverse habitats in the marine realm. Their productivity, structural complexity, and biodiversity critically depend on ecosystem services provided by corals that are threatened because of climate change effects—in particular, ocean warming and acidification. The coral holobiont is composed of the coral animal host, endosymbiotic dinoflagellates, associated viruses, bacteria, and other microeukaryotes. In particular, the mandatory photosymbiosis with microalgae of the family Symbiodiniaceae and its consequences on the evolution, physiology, and stress resilience of the coral holobiont have yet to be fully elucidated. The functioning of the holobiont as a whole is largely unknown, although bacteria and viruses are presumed to play roles in metabolic interactions, immunity, and stress tolerance. In the context of climate change and anthropogenic threats on coral reef ecosystems, the Tara Pacific project aims to provide a baseline of the “-omics” complexity of the coral holobiont and its ecosystem across the Pacific Ocean and for various oceanographically distinct defined areas. Inspired by the previous Tara Oceans expeditions, the Tara Pacific expedition (2016–2018) has applied a pan-ecosystemic approach on coral reefs throughout the Pacific Ocean, drawing an east–west transect from Panama to Papua New Guinea and a south–north transect from Australia to Japan, sampling corals throughout 32 island systems with local replicates. Tara Pacific has developed and applied state-of-the-art technologies in very-high-throughput genetic sequencing and molecular analysis to reveal the entire microbial and chemical diversity as well as functional traits associated with coral holobionts, together with various measures on environmental forcing. This ambitious project aims at revealing a massive amount of novel biodiversity, shedding light on the complex links between genomes, transcriptomes, metabolomes, organisms, and ecosystem functions in coral reefs and providing a reference of the biological state of modern coral reefs in the Anthropocene

Expanding Tara Oceans Protocols for Underway, Ecosystemic Sampling of the Ocean-Atmosphere Interface During Tara Pacific Expedition (2016-2018)

Interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere occur at the air-sea interface through the transfer of momentum, heat, gases and particulate matter, and through the impact of the upper-ocean biology on the composition and radiative properties of this boundary layer. The Tara Pacific expedition, launched in May 2016 aboard the schooner Tara, was a 29-month exploration with the dual goals to study the ecology of reef ecosystems along ecological gradients in the Pacific Ocean and to assess inter-island and open ocean surface plankton and neuston community structures. In addition, key atmospheric properties were measured to study links between the two boundary layer properties. A major challenge for the open ocean sampling was the lack of ship-time available for work at "stations". The time constraint led us to develop new underway sampling approaches to optimize physical, chemical, optical, and genomic methods to capture the entire community structure of the surface layers, from viruses to metazoans in their oceanographic and atmospheric physicochemical context. An international scientific consortium was put together to analyze the samples, generate data, and develop datasets in coherence with the existing Tara Oceans database. Beyond adapting the extensive Tara Oceans sampling protocols for high-resolution underway sampling, the key novelties compared to Tara Oceans' global assessment of plankton include the measurement of (i) surface plankton and neuston biogeography and functional diversity; (ii) bioactive trace metals distribution at the ocean surface and metal-dependent ecosystem structures; (iii) marine aerosols, including biological entities; (iv) geography, nature and colonization of microplastic; and (v) high-resolution underway assessment of net community production via equilibrator inlet mass spectrometry. We are committed to share the data collected during this expedition, making it an important resource important resource to address a variety of scientific questions