Spatially varying selection between habitats drives physiological shifts and local adaptation in a broadcast spawning coral on a remote atoll in Western Australia
At the Rowley Shoals in Western Australia, the prominent reef flat becomes exposed on low tide and the stagnant water in the shallow atoll lagoons heats up, creating a natural laboratory for characterizing the mechanisms of coral resilience to climate change. To explore these mechanisms in the reef...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP160101508 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90971 |
| _version_ | 1848765475749625856 |
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| author | Thomas, L. Underwood, J.N. Rose, N.H. Fuller, Z.L. Richards, Zoe Dugal, L. Grimaldi, C.M. Cooke, I.R. Palumbi, S.R. Gilmour, J.P. |
| author_facet | Thomas, L. Underwood, J.N. Rose, N.H. Fuller, Z.L. Richards, Zoe Dugal, L. Grimaldi, C.M. Cooke, I.R. Palumbi, S.R. Gilmour, J.P. |
| author_sort | Thomas, L. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | At the Rowley Shoals in Western Australia, the prominent reef flat becomes exposed on low tide and the stagnant water in the shallow atoll lagoons heats up, creating a natural laboratory for characterizing the mechanisms of coral resilience to climate change. To explore these mechanisms in the reef coral Acropora tenuis, we collected samples from lagoon and reef slope habitats and combined whole-genome sequencing, ITS2 metabarcoding, experimental heat stress, and transcriptomics. Despite high gene flow across the atoll, we identified clear shifts in allele frequencies between habitats at relatively small linked genomic islands. Common garden heat stress assays showed corals from the lagoon to be more resistant to bleaching, and RNA sequencing revealed marked differences in baseline levels of gene expression between habitats. Our results provide new insight into the complex mechanisms of coral resilience to climate change and highlight the potential for spatially varying selection across complex coral reef seascapes to drive pronounced ecological divergence in climate-related traits. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:35:51Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-90971 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:35:51Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-909712023-05-11T03:33:28Z Spatially varying selection between habitats drives physiological shifts and local adaptation in a broadcast spawning coral on a remote atoll in Western Australia Thomas, L. Underwood, J.N. Rose, N.H. Fuller, Z.L. Richards, Zoe Dugal, L. Grimaldi, C.M. Cooke, I.R. Palumbi, S.R. Gilmour, J.P. Science & Technology Multidisciplinary Sciences Science & Technology - Other Topics REEF-BUILDING CORALS THERMAL TOLERANCE GENETIC DIVERSITY HEAT TOLERANCE RESILIENCE SUSCEPTIBILITY EXPRESSION RESISTANCE GENOMICS HISTORY At the Rowley Shoals in Western Australia, the prominent reef flat becomes exposed on low tide and the stagnant water in the shallow atoll lagoons heats up, creating a natural laboratory for characterizing the mechanisms of coral resilience to climate change. To explore these mechanisms in the reef coral Acropora tenuis, we collected samples from lagoon and reef slope habitats and combined whole-genome sequencing, ITS2 metabarcoding, experimental heat stress, and transcriptomics. Despite high gene flow across the atoll, we identified clear shifts in allele frequencies between habitats at relatively small linked genomic islands. Common garden heat stress assays showed corals from the lagoon to be more resistant to bleaching, and RNA sequencing revealed marked differences in baseline levels of gene expression between habitats. Our results provide new insight into the complex mechanisms of coral resilience to climate change and highlight the potential for spatially varying selection across complex coral reef seascapes to drive pronounced ecological divergence in climate-related traits. 2022 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90971 10.1126/sciadv.abl9185 English http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP160101508 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Science & Technology Multidisciplinary Sciences Science & Technology - Other Topics REEF-BUILDING CORALS THERMAL TOLERANCE GENETIC DIVERSITY HEAT TOLERANCE RESILIENCE SUSCEPTIBILITY EXPRESSION RESISTANCE GENOMICS HISTORY Thomas, L. Underwood, J.N. Rose, N.H. Fuller, Z.L. Richards, Zoe Dugal, L. Grimaldi, C.M. Cooke, I.R. Palumbi, S.R. Gilmour, J.P. Spatially varying selection between habitats drives physiological shifts and local adaptation in a broadcast spawning coral on a remote atoll in Western Australia |
| title | Spatially varying selection between habitats drives physiological shifts and local adaptation in a broadcast spawning coral on a remote atoll in Western Australia |
| title_full | Spatially varying selection between habitats drives physiological shifts and local adaptation in a broadcast spawning coral on a remote atoll in Western Australia |
| title_fullStr | Spatially varying selection between habitats drives physiological shifts and local adaptation in a broadcast spawning coral on a remote atoll in Western Australia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Spatially varying selection between habitats drives physiological shifts and local adaptation in a broadcast spawning coral on a remote atoll in Western Australia |
| title_short | Spatially varying selection between habitats drives physiological shifts and local adaptation in a broadcast spawning coral on a remote atoll in Western Australia |
| title_sort | spatially varying selection between habitats drives physiological shifts and local adaptation in a broadcast spawning coral on a remote atoll in western australia |
| topic | Science & Technology Multidisciplinary Sciences Science & Technology - Other Topics REEF-BUILDING CORALS THERMAL TOLERANCE GENETIC DIVERSITY HEAT TOLERANCE RESILIENCE SUSCEPTIBILITY EXPRESSION RESISTANCE GENOMICS HISTORY |
| url | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP160101508 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90971 |