Document of bibliographic reference 324152

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Symbiont diversity is not involved in depth acclimation in the Mediterranean sea whip Eunicella singularis

Abstract

In symbiotic cnidarians, acclimation to depth and lower irradiance can involve physiological changes in the photosynthetic dinoflagellate endosymbiont, such as increased chlorophyll content, or qualitative modifications in the symbiont population in favour of better adapted strains. It has been argued that a lack of capacity to acquire new symbionts could limit the bathymetric distribution of the host species, or compromise its long-term survival in a changing environment. But is that always true? To address this question, we investigated the symbiont genetic diversity in Eunicella singularis, a Mediterranean sea whip species with a wide bathymetric distribution (10 to 50 m depth), which has recently suffered from mass mortalities after periods of abnormally high sea temperatures. We measured symbiont population densities and chlorophyll content in natural populations, and followed the response of the holobionts after reciprocal transplantations to deep and shallow depths. A total of 161 colonies were sampled at 2 depths (10 and 30 m) at 5 sites in the northwestern Mediterranean. All colonies harboured a single ribosomal Symbiodinium clade (A’), but a relatively high within-clade genetic diversity was found among and within colonies. This diversity was not structured by depth, even though the deeper colonies contained significantly lower population densities of symbionts and less chlorophyll. We did, however, reveal host-symbiont specificity among E. singularis and other Mediterranean cnidarian species. Transplantation experiments revealed a limit of plasticity for symbiont population density and chlorophyll content, which in turn questions the importance of the trophic role of Symbiodinium in E. singularis.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000296068200005

Bibliographic citation

Forcioli, D.; Merle, P.L.; Caligara, C.; Ciosi, M.; Muti, C.; Francour, P.; Cerrano, C.; Allemand, D. (2011). Symbiont diversity is not involved in depth acclimation in the Mediterranean sea whip Eunicella singularis. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 439: 57-71. https://dx.doi.org/10.3354/meps09314

Topic

Marine

Is peer reviewed

true

Access rights

open access

Is accessible for free

true