Climate change driven increases in intensity and frequency of both hot and cold extreme events contribute to coral reef decline by causing widespread coral bleaching and mortality. Here, we show that hot and cold temperature changes cause distinct physiological responses on different time scales in reef-building corals. We exposed the branching coral Acropora yongei in individual aquaria to a ±...

Coral reefs are consistently and increasingly subject to acute disturbance events that often lead to a reduction in live coral cover with concomitant effects on the diversity and abundance of coral reef fishes. Here we examine changes in both hard coral and reef-fish assemblages over 15 yr following major losses of coral from exposed reefs in 2 widely separated sectors of the Great Barrier Reef...

The mutualistic relationship between corals and their unicellular dinoflagellate symbionts (Symbiodinium sp.) is a fundamental component within the ecology of coral reefs. Thermal stress causes the breakdown of the relationship between corals and their symbionts (bleaching). As with other organisms, this symbiosis may acclimate to changes in the environment, thereby potentially modifying the en...

Disease epidemics have caused extensive damage to tropical coral reefs and to the reef-building corals themselves, yet nothing is known about the abilities of the coral host to resist disease infection. Understanding the potential for natural disease resistance in corals is critically important, especially in the Caribbean where the two ecologically dominant shallow-water corals, Acropora cervi...

Coral restoration is gaining traction as a viable strategy to help restore degraded reefs. While the nascent field of coral restoration has rapidly progressed in the past decade, significant knowledge gaps remain regarding the drivers of restoration success that may impede our ability to effectively restore coral reef communities. Here, we conducted a field experiment to investigate the influen...

The acclimatization capacity of corals is a critical consideration in the persistence of coral reefs under stresses imposed by global climate change. The stress history of corals plays a role in subsequent response to heat stress, but the transcriptomic changes associated with these plastic changes have not been previously explored. In order to identify host transcriptomic changes associated wi...

The role of competition in regulating reef fish populations has been controversial. Here, we test the effect of intraspecific competition on the spatial distribution and social organisation of Gobiodon histrio, an obligate coral-dwelling goby that inhabits the branching coral Acropora nasuta. At Lizard Island (Great Barrier Reef), social groups of G. histrio consisted of either a single individ...

Reef corals are sensitive to thermal stress, which induces coral bleaching (the loss of algal symbionts), often leading to coral mortality. However, corals hosting certain symbionts (notably some members of Symbiodinium clade D) resist bleaching when exposed to high temperatures. To determine whether these symbionts are also cold tolerant, we exposed corals hosting either Symbiodinium C3 or D1a...

For species with complex life histories such as scleractinian corals, processes occurring early in life can greatly influence the number of individuals entering the adult population. A plethora of studies have examined settlement patterns of coral larvae, mostly on artificial substrata, and the composition of adult corals across multiple spatial and temporal scales. However, relatively few stud...