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   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    How coral reefs can survive climate change    
      
     Date:   
         June 26, 2023   
     Source:   
         University of Konstanz   
     Summary:   
         Similar to the expeditions of a hundred or two hundred years ago,   
         the Tara Pacific expedition lasted over two years. The goal: to   
         research the conditions for life and survival of corals. The ship   
         crossed the entire Pacific Ocean, assembling the largest genetic   
         inventory conducted in any marine system to date. The team's 70   
         scientists from eight countries took around 58,000 samples from   
         the hundred coral reefs studied.   
      
      
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   FULL STORY   
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   Similar to the expeditions of a hundred or two hundred years ago, the   
   Tara Pacific expedition lasted over two years. The goal: to research   
   the conditions for life and survival of corals. The ship crossed   
   the entire Pacific Ocean, assembling the largest genetic inventory   
   conducted in any marine system to date. The team's 70 scientists from   
   eight countries took around 58,000 samples from the hundred coral reefs   
   studied. The first results of the analysis have now been published in   
   Nature Communications. This largest-ever dataset collection on coral reef   
   ecosystems is freely available and, for years to come, will be the basis   
   for elucidating the living conditions for corals and finding a way for   
   them to survive climate change.   
      
   Important first results of the expedition: Global microbial biodiversity   
   is much higher than previously thought. The impacts of the environment   
   on evolutionary adaptation are species-specific. And, important genes   
   in corals are duplicated.   
      
   Global biodiversity ten times higher than assumed Coral reefs are the   
   most biologically diverse marine ecosystem on Earth.   
      
   Although they cover only 0.16 percent of the world's oceans, they are   
   home to about 35 percent of known marine species. Using a genetic   
   marker-based dataset, the researchers found out that all of the   
   globally estimated bacterial biodiversity is already contained in the   
   microorganisms of coral reefs. "We have been completely underestimating   
   the global microbial biodiversity," says Christian Voolstra, professor of   
   genetics of adaptation in aquatic systems at the University of Konstanz   
   and scientific coordinator of the Tara Pacific expedition. He says the   
   current estimate of biodiversity (approximately five million bacteria)   
   is underestimated by about a factor of 10.   
      
   Impacts of the environment on evolutionary adaptation are species-specific   
   The 32 archipelagos studied serve as natural laboratories and provide   
   a wide range of envi-ronmental conditions, allowing to disentangle   
   the relationships between environmental and genetic parameters across   
   large spatial scales. This led to another important finding: the effects   
   the environment has on evolutionary adaptation trajectories of corals   
   are species-specific. To determine this, the researchers examined the   
   telomeres, the ends of chromosomes that are the carriers of genetic   
   information, for the first time.   
      
   In humans, the length of telomeres decreases during life, that is with   
   an increasing number of cell divisions, suggesting that biological age is   
   closely linked to the length of telomeres. Researchers on the Tara Pacific   
   expedition have now found that the telomeres in very stress-resistant   
   corals are always the same length. "They apparently have a mechanism to   
   preserve the lengths of their telomeres," Voolstra concludes. In a more   
   stress-sensitive coral species, that also has a shorter lifespan of about   
   a hundred years, telomere length is aligned to environmental stress,   
   such as temperature fluctuations. "A direct imprint of environmental   
   stress levels on organismal resilience may even hold implications for   
   human health," says Voolstra.   
      
   Important genes are duplicated Research data from the Tara Pacific   
   expedition brought to light that the long life of some coral species   
   may have yet another reason: the duplication of certain genes. Many   
   important genes are present multiple times in the genome.   
      
   The researchers were able to determine this through sequencing of coral   
   genomes employing a new high-resolution technique. This technique called   
   long-read sequencing makes it possible to not only determine the set of   
   genes present, but also to look at their order in the genome. According to   
   Voolstra, the pervasive presence of gene duplication could be a possible   
   explanation for why corals can live for thousands of years despite being   
   exposed, for instance, to extreme UV radiation in shallow waters.   
      
   The Tara Pacific expedition, named after the research vessel, will provide   
   material for large-scale analyses of coral reef ecosystem diversity for   
   years to come. What also makes the programme unique is that samples   
   were collected from multiple locations and over several years. The   
   researchers examined the corals at each site in an identical manner,   
   which makes the results fully comparable.   
      
   The entire data collection is freely accessible All datasets are   
   openly accessible and fully described with accompanying physical and   
   chemical measurements to provide them as a scientific resource to   
   all researchers. "This is unique," Voolstra says. "It is the largest   
   dataset collection on coral reefs ever collected and it is completely   
   open access." The aspiration is that this data collection will serve as   
   a foundation and inventory to guide future study of coral reefs worldwide   
   for many years.   
      
       * RELATED_TOPICS   
             o Plants_&_Animals   
                   # Ecology_Research # Nature # Marine_Biology # Extinction   
             o Earth_&_Climate   
                   # Ecology # Coral_Reefs # Environmental_Awareness #   
                   Biodiversity   
       * RELATED_TERMS   
             o Gray_Whale o List_of_Category_5_Pacific_hurricanes o Ocean   
             o Giant_clam o Antarctica o Southeast_Asia_coral_reefs o   
             Greenland_ice_sheet o Artificial_reef   
      
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   Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Konstanz. Note:   
   Content may be edited for style and length.   
      
      
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   Journal Reference:   
      1. Serge Planes, Denis Allemand. Insights and achievements from   
      the Tara   
         Pacific expedition. Nature Communications, 2023; 14 (1) DOI:   
         10.1038/ s41467-023-38896-6   
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   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230626163854.htm   
      
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