Species-specific molecular responses of wild coral reef fishes during a marine heatwave

Bernal, Moises A., Schunter, Celia, Lehmann, Robert, Lightfoot, Damien J., Allan, Bridie J.M., Veilleux, Heather D., Rummer, Jodie L., Munday, Philip L., and Ravasi, Timothy (2020) Species-specific molecular responses of wild coral reef fishes during a marine heatwave. Science Advances, 6 (12). eaay3423.

[img]
Preview
PDF (Published Version) - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial.

Download (753kB) | Preview
View at Publisher Website: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aay3423
 
32
930


Abstract

The marine heatwave of 2016 was one of longest and hottest thermal anomalies recorded on the Great Barrier Reef, influencing multiple species of marine ectotherms, including coral reef fishes. There is a gap in our understanding of what the physiological consequences of heatwaves in wild fish populations are. Thus, in this study, we used liver transcriptomes to understand the molecular response of five species to the 2016 heatwave conditions. Gene expression was species specific, yet we detected overlap in functional responses associated with thermal stress previously reported in experimental setups. The molecular response was also influenced by the duration of exposure to elevated temperatures. This study highlights the importance of considering the effects of extreme warming events when evaluating the consequences of climate change on fish communities.

Item ID: 62849
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 2375-2548
Keywords: coral reef, climate change, ocean warming, fish
Copyright Information: Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.
Funders: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Australian Research Council (ARC), ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
Projects and Grants: (KAUST) Office of Competitive Research Funds OSR-2015-CRG4-2541
Date Deposited: 15 Apr 2020 07:40
FoR Codes: 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) @ 100%
SEO Codes: 18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1802 Coastal and estuarine systems and management > 180201 Assessment and management of coastal and estuarine ecosystems @ 100%
Downloads: Total: 930
Last 12 Months: 9
More Statistics

Actions (Repository Staff Only)

Item Control Page Item Control Page