Thermal and Acidification Gradients Reveal Tolerance Thresholds in Pocillopora acuta Recruits

Ocean warming and acidification are among the biggest threats to the persistence of coral reefs. Organismal stress tolerance thresholds are life stage specific, can vary across levels of biological organisation and also depend on natural environmental variability. Here, we exposed the early life stages of Pocillopora acuta in Kāne'ohe Bay, Hawai'i, USA, a common reef-building coral throughout the Pacific, to projected ocean warming and acidification scenarios. We measured ecological, physiological, biomineralisation and molecular responses across the critical transition from larvae to newly settled recruits following 6 days of exposure to diel fluctuations in temperature and pH in Control (26.8°C-27.9°C, 7.82-7.96 pH_Total), Mid (28.4°C-29.5°C, 7.65-7.79 pH_Total) and High conditions (30.2°C-31.5°C, 7.44-7.59 pH_Total). We found that P. acuta early life stages are capable of survival, settlement and calcification under all scenarios. The High conditions, however, caused a significant reduction in survival and settlement capacity, with changes in the skeletal fibre deposition patterns. Although there was limited impact on the expression of biomineralisation genes, exposure to High conditions resulted in strong transcriptomic responses including depressed metabolism, reduced ATP production and increased activity of DNA damage-repair processes, indicative of a compromised metabolic state. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that coral juveniles living in environments with large diurnal fluctuations in seawater temperature and pH, such as Kāne'ohe Bay, can tolerate exposure to moderate projected increased temperature and reduced pH. However, under more severe environmental conditions, significant negative effects on coral cellular metabolism and overall organismal survival jeopardise species fitness and recruitment.