Naumann, Malik S., Orejas, C. and Ferrier-Pagès, C. (2013) High thermal tolerance of two Mediterranean cold-water coral species maintained in aquaria. Coral Reefs, 32 (3). pp. 749-754. DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-013-1011-7.

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Abstract

In the Mediterranean deep-sea, scleractinian cold-water corals (CWC) are observed to survive at the uppermost end of their presumed thermal distribution range (4–13 °C). Here, we show that 2 common CWC species (i.e. Dendrophyllia cornigera and Desmophyllum dianthus) maintained in aquaria can indeed tolerate considerably elevated seawater temperatures (17.5 ± 0.1 °C), while growing at similar (D. dianthus) or significantly higher (D. cornigera) rates than conspecifics cultured in parallel for 87 days at ambient Mediterranean deep-sea temperature (12.5 ± 0.1 °C). Neither differences in coral appearance nor mortality were evident for both species at either temperature. D. dianthus grew significantly faster (0.23 ± 0.08 % day−1) than D. cornigera (0.05 ± 0.01 % day−1) under ambient thermal conditions. Growth of D. cornigera increased significantly (0.14 ± 0.07 % day−1) at elevated temperature, while Desmophyllum dianthus growth showed no significant difference under both conditions. These findings suggest that D. dianthus and D. cornigera may be capable of surviving in warmer environments than previously reported, and thus challenge temperature as the paramount limiting environmental factor for the occurrence of some CWC species.

Document Type:	Article
Programme Area:	UNSPECIFIED
Research affiliation:	Ecology
Refereed:	Yes
Open Access Journal?:	No
DOI:	https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-013-1011-7
ISSN:	0722-4028
Date Deposited:	16 Aug 2019 15:24
Last Modified:	01 Oct 2020 12:59
URI:	http://cris.leibniz-zmt.de/id/eprint/2671

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