Controlled temperature-induced dormancy leads to predictable microbial recovery in the temperate coral microbiome

Dormancy is a common response to harsh conditions across the tree of life. Increasingly, the animal microbiome is suggested to mediate dormancy, including onset, maintenance and exit or recovery periods. However, it is unclear what triggers dormancy and the consistency of microbial patterns across populations. Because it regularly undergoes dormancy during winter in the northernmost part of its range, the temperate coral Astrangia poculata can serve as a model for studying coral-microbiome dynamics during environmental stress and recovery.

Here, we experimentally manipulated temperature to induce dormancy and measured the microbial community shifts associated with dormancy and during the days that the corals were exiting dormancy in two populations.

Our treatments successfully induced dormancy, which was maintained through low temperatures. We found consistent and predictable shifts in the microbiome during dormancy and during the recovery period while corals exited dormancy.

We suggest Sulfitobacter, a key genus in tropical corals, may be involved in early recovery in the assembly of the microbiome. Broadly, our results highlight that the inducible, consistent, and persistent microbial restructuring associated with Astrangia dormancy can be applied more generally to tropical coral recovery from stress.