High resistance of Acropora coral gametes facing copper exposure

Pollution by heavy metals remains today an important threat to the health of humans and ecosystems, but there is still a paucity of data on the response of early life stages of key organisms. In this context, the present work assessed the fertilization success rate of two Acropora species (A. cytherea and A. pulchra) from the French Polynesia reefs exposed to six increasing copper concentrations in seawater. The two species showed a relatively high tolerance to copper (4h30-EC50 was 69.4 ± 4.8 μg L(-1) and 75.4 ± 6.4 μg L(-1) for A. cytherea and A. pulchra, respectively). As Cu concentration increases, an increasing proportion of deformed embryos was recorded (67.6% and 58.5% for A. cytherea and A. pulchra, respectively, at 220 μg Cu L(-1)). These results demonstrated thus, that high levels of copper could negatively impair the normal fertilization process of coral gametes and therefore alter the renewal of coral populations. Since the two Acropora species investigated in this study displayed a high resistance to copper, these results should be considered in the context of multiple stressors associated with climate change, where rising temperature or ocean acidification may significantly exacerbate copper toxicity.