Since the 1970s, coral reefs in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) have experienced catastrophic declines in coral cover, with as much as a 50% reduction between 1998 and 2011 alone.
Since the 1970s, coral reefs in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) have experienced catastrophic declines in coral cover, with as much as a 50% reduction between 1998 and 2011 alone. Although coral reefs within the FKNMS have been heavily studied, research in the mesophotic zone, which extends from about 100 to 500 feet deep, has historically been more limited in this region.
Mesophotic coral ecosystems have the potential to be buffered from anthropogenic stressors due to their depth and/or relative isolation from shore in many regions. Moreover, mesophotic coral ecosystems may also function as refuges for depth-generalist coral species, providing viable larvae to degraded shallow reefs after isolated episodic disturbance events. In the FKNMS, mesophotic corals have largely avoided the damage caused by bleaching and stony coral tissue loss disease, so they could be a key source of genetic diversity for shallow reefs in the region.
Using the blushing coral star (Stephanocoenia intersepta), found throughout the Western Atlantic, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute investigated how coral populations at different depths and locations may be related or “connected” to each other. Using genomic DNA analyses, they explored genetic diversity, differences and connectivity among blushing coral star populations and their symbiotic algal partners using SNP genotyping and ITS2 sequencing.
Read More: Florida Atlantic University
A colony of blushing star coral, Stephanocoenia intersepta, on a mesophotic reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. (Photo Credit: Ryan Eckert, FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute)
