Yi Huang, Cheng Feng, Bohai Gao, Lijuan Long, Fangfang Yang. Seasonal dynamics of Symbiodiniaceae communities associated with nine coral species in Luhuitou coral reef, South China Sea[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica. doi: 10.1007/s13131-024-2366-z
Citation:
Yi Huang, Cheng Feng, Bohai Gao, Lijuan Long, Fangfang Yang. Seasonal dynamics of Symbiodiniaceae communities associated with nine coral species in Luhuitou coral reef, South China Sea[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica. doi: 10.1007/s13131-024-2366-z
Yi Huang, Cheng Feng, Bohai Gao, Lijuan Long, Fangfang Yang. Seasonal dynamics of Symbiodiniaceae communities associated with nine coral species in Luhuitou coral reef, South China Sea[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica. doi: 10.1007/s13131-024-2366-z
Citation:
Yi Huang, Cheng Feng, Bohai Gao, Lijuan Long, Fangfang Yang. Seasonal dynamics of Symbiodiniaceae communities associated with nine coral species in Luhuitou coral reef, South China Sea[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica. doi: 10.1007/s13131-024-2366-z
Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China
2.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3.
Guangdong Provincial Observation and Research Station for Coastal Upwelling Ecosystem, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shantou 515041, China
The symbiotic association between reef-building corals and Symbiodiniaceae is pivotal for coral reef ecosystems, yet remains susceptible to environmental factors. Currently, there is a dearth of research examining seasonal fluctuations in coral-associated Symbiodiniaceae communities. In this study, we investigated the seasonal dynamics of Symbiodiniaceae communities associated with coral species in the Luhuitou coral reef using high-throughput sequencing techniques and SymPortal analytical framework. The results indicated that the genus Cladocopium exhibited dominance (averaging 82%), followed by Durusdinium (18%) and Breviolum (0.01%) within the examined coral species. Among the 521 Symbiodiniaceae ITS2 sequence types, C15 emerged as the prevalent type (13.24%), trailed by C3u (9.51%) and D1 (8.57%). Interestingly, Symbiodiniaceae communities varied among different coral species. Pocillopora damicornis displayed a predominant association with Durusdinium, while Porites lutea, Goniastrea retiformis, Montipora truncata, Montipora aequituberculata, and Acropora divaricata were entirely dominated by the genus Cladocopium (100%), showcasing distinct host specificity. In the cases of Hydnophora exesa, Acropora latistella, Acropora digitifera, and seawater, both Cladocopium and Durusdinium were concurrently detected. Moreover, the diversity of Symbiodiniaceae associated with P. damicornis, P. lutea, G. retiformis, M. truncata, M. aequituberculata, and A. digitifera exhibited significant variations across different seasons. Notably, the results revealed that the alterations in Symbiodiniaceae community compositions were primarily driven by nutrient concentrations and seawater temperature. The network analysis of Symbiodiniaceae revealed the dominant Symbiodiniaceae types C15, C17f, C3u, C3, and D4 were exclusive. This study provided the seasonal variation characteristics of Symbiodiniaceae communities among different coral species, which may be a potential adaptive mechanism to environmental conditions.
Figure 1. Overview of sampling location. The red asterisk indicates a sampling point located in the Luhuitou coral reef, South China Sea.
Figure 2. Symbionidiaceae community compositions in four seasons of the Luhuitou coral reef. a. Relative abundance of Symbiodiniaceae genera, b. Symbiodiniaceae ITS2 type profiles, and c. Symbiodiniaceae ITS2 sequence types (sequence types with relative abundance less than or equal to 0.05 in all samples were classified as other).
Figure 3. Shannon diversity index of Symbiodiniaceae in four seasons (a), and Shannon diversity for seawater and different coral species (b). Significant parameters (p<0.05) were indicated by an asterisk.
Figure 4. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) of Symbiodiniaceae communities in different seasons (a), and across different coral species and seawater (b). Ellipses indicate 95% confidence intervals and stress is 0.135.
Figure 5. Canonical correspondence analysis and significance statistics for the relationship between Symbiodiniaceae composition and environmental variables. Significant parameters (p<0.05) were indicated by an asterisk.
Figure 6. Hierarchical clustering heatmap of Symbiodiniaceae community in 154 coral and seawater samples.
Figure 7. The network interactions of Symbiodiniaceae ITS2 sequence types. The size of the node represents the degree of the node. The size of the edge represents the degree of correlation.
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