Effects on the Pocillopora verrucosa microbiome when in contact with macroalgae under ocean acidification
Hard coral cover is in decline and this decline has generally coincided with macroalgal proliferation in coral reefs. Coral degradation can be caused by many variables but this study is focused on potential degradation due to direct competition with allelopathic macroalgae under the effects of futur...
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Georgia Institute of Technology
2016
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ftgeorgiatech:oai:repository.gatech.edu:1853/55388 2024-06-02T08:12:28+00:00 Effects on the Pocillopora verrucosa microbiome when in contact with macroalgae under ocean acidification Gantt, Shelby Stewart, Frank Hay, Mark Biology 2016-07-18T17:05:22Z application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1853/55388 en_US eng Georgia Institute of Technology http://hdl.handle.net/1853/55388 Coral Algae Coral-algae Competition Climate change Global warming Allelopathy Flumes Ocean acidification Marine Microbiome Moorea South pacific Text Undergraduate Thesis 2016 ftgeorgiatech 2024-05-06T11:11:14Z Hard coral cover is in decline and this decline has generally coincided with macroalgal proliferation in coral reefs. Coral degradation can be caused by many variables but this study is focused on potential degradation due to direct competition with allelopathic macroalgae under the effects of future ocean acidification. Allelopathy is the use of chemicals for protection or competitive purposes. It has previously been shown that algae compete with corals through allelopathy, but not if allelopathy causes the microbiome of the coral to enter a diseased state, though there have been several cases of diseased microbiome states observed. As such, it is of interest to determine if the allelopathic competition from algae affects the coral microbiome, leading to a diseased state, and whether these interactions are exaggerated or effected by ocean acidification. We hypothesize that macroalgal allelopathy effects the microbiome of the reef-building coral Pocillopora verrucosa and that these competitive interactions will be affected by the stressor of ocean acidification. We expect the latter because of previous evidence that increased pH causes stress to some species of corals. To test this, we used a pre-established scale of algal allelopathy demonstrated in Rasher et al. (2011) and placed corals and algae in contact under ocean acidification conditions for 3 weeks before samples were processed for microbial taxonomy. The initial analyses have demonstrated no significant differences in the abundances of major microbial taxa compositions for the sampled coral microbiomes when in the presence of the various allelopathic macroalgae, but these are preliminary findings. The data will require finer microbial analysis to determine whether or not there are any significant effects on the coral microbiomes. Undergraduate Bachelor Thesis Ocean acidification Georgia Institute of Technology: SMARTech - Scholarly Materials and Research at Georgia Tech Pacific |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Georgia Institute of Technology: SMARTech - Scholarly Materials and Research at Georgia Tech |
op_collection_id |
ftgeorgiatech |
language |
English |
topic |
Coral Algae Coral-algae Competition Climate change Global warming Allelopathy Flumes Ocean acidification Marine Microbiome Moorea South pacific |
spellingShingle |
Coral Algae Coral-algae Competition Climate change Global warming Allelopathy Flumes Ocean acidification Marine Microbiome Moorea South pacific Gantt, Shelby Effects on the Pocillopora verrucosa microbiome when in contact with macroalgae under ocean acidification |
topic_facet |
Coral Algae Coral-algae Competition Climate change Global warming Allelopathy Flumes Ocean acidification Marine Microbiome Moorea South pacific |
description |
Hard coral cover is in decline and this decline has generally coincided with macroalgal proliferation in coral reefs. Coral degradation can be caused by many variables but this study is focused on potential degradation due to direct competition with allelopathic macroalgae under the effects of future ocean acidification. Allelopathy is the use of chemicals for protection or competitive purposes. It has previously been shown that algae compete with corals through allelopathy, but not if allelopathy causes the microbiome of the coral to enter a diseased state, though there have been several cases of diseased microbiome states observed. As such, it is of interest to determine if the allelopathic competition from algae affects the coral microbiome, leading to a diseased state, and whether these interactions are exaggerated or effected by ocean acidification. We hypothesize that macroalgal allelopathy effects the microbiome of the reef-building coral Pocillopora verrucosa and that these competitive interactions will be affected by the stressor of ocean acidification. We expect the latter because of previous evidence that increased pH causes stress to some species of corals. To test this, we used a pre-established scale of algal allelopathy demonstrated in Rasher et al. (2011) and placed corals and algae in contact under ocean acidification conditions for 3 weeks before samples were processed for microbial taxonomy. The initial analyses have demonstrated no significant differences in the abundances of major microbial taxa compositions for the sampled coral microbiomes when in the presence of the various allelopathic macroalgae, but these are preliminary findings. The data will require finer microbial analysis to determine whether or not there are any significant effects on the coral microbiomes. Undergraduate |
author2 |
Stewart, Frank Hay, Mark Biology |
format |
Bachelor Thesis |
author |
Gantt, Shelby |
author_facet |
Gantt, Shelby |
author_sort |
Gantt, Shelby |
title |
Effects on the Pocillopora verrucosa microbiome when in contact with macroalgae under ocean acidification |
title_short |
Effects on the Pocillopora verrucosa microbiome when in contact with macroalgae under ocean acidification |
title_full |
Effects on the Pocillopora verrucosa microbiome when in contact with macroalgae under ocean acidification |
title_fullStr |
Effects on the Pocillopora verrucosa microbiome when in contact with macroalgae under ocean acidification |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effects on the Pocillopora verrucosa microbiome when in contact with macroalgae under ocean acidification |
title_sort |
effects on the pocillopora verrucosa microbiome when in contact with macroalgae under ocean acidification |
publisher |
Georgia Institute of Technology |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1853/55388 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/1853/55388 |
_version_ |
1800758911097110528 |