{"id":19,"date":"2017-11-16T19:13:10","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T00:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/davieslab\/?page_id=19"},"modified":"2020-11-16T15:03:59","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T20:03:59","slug":"coral-resilience-to-disturbances","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/davieslab\/research\/coral-resilience-to-disturbances\/","title":{"rendered":"Coral Resilience to Disturbances"},"content":{"rendered":"

Impacts of disturbances on corals and their microbial communities<\/span><\/h3>\n

Changes in anthropogenic activity and the climate expose corals to devastating disturbance events, such as anomalous storms and rapid changes in temperature, salinity, nutrient input, and sedimentation. The Davies lab studies the influences of these disturbances on corals, both from the perspective of the coral host and their symbiotic microorganisms.<\/p>\n

Hurricane Irma <\/span><\/i><\/h3>\n

\"\" In 2017, the Davies Lab was subcontracted to work with the Castillo lab at UNC Chapel Hill<\/a> on a supplement to their NSF award<\/a> exploring the influence of Hurricane Irma on coral microbial communities in the Florida Keys. Within corals, communities of algal symbionts and bacteria can exchange nutrients and metabolic byproducts and form complex co-occurrence networks, however little is known about the resilience of these networks to disturbance. Immediately after Hurricane Irma struck Florida as a category 5 storm, our team visited sites along the Florida Keys and sampled coral microbial communities to compare to samples we had previously collected in the years prior. We then returned one year after the storm disturbance to assess whether these coral microbial communities had recovered. This work is being led by Nicola Kriefall<\/a> and will help elucidate the influence of disturbance events on coral microbial communities, which are projected to intensify over the coming century. Want to learn more? Check out this blogpost<\/a>!<\/p>\n

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Davies Lab graduate student Nicola G. Kriefall and collaborator Dr. John P. Rippe<\/a> sampling coral tissue shortly after Hurricane Irma. Photograph by Dr. Karl D. Castillo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Hurricane Harvey <\/span><\/i><\/h3>\n

\"\" Hurricane Harvey brought record-breaking levels of rainfall and flooding to Texas in June 2017, causing unprecedented freshwater runoff to the Gulf of Mexico. The Davies Lab acquired NSF RAPID funding<\/a> in collaboration with the Correa<\/a>, Shamberger<\/a>, Santiago-V\u00e1zquez<\/a>, and Sylvan<\/a> labs to explore the effects of this freshwater on reefs of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary<\/a>. Our team monitored the freshwater plume and collected samples immediately after Hurricane Harvey and after one month of stress recovery. During these expeditions, we collected coral and sponge samples for genomic profiling and performed transects collecting seawater samples for microbial and water chemistry analyses. Dr. Rachel Wright<\/a> (now at Smith College) compared coral and algal symbiont gene expression to identify signatures of sublethal stress experienced by these offshore corals, which included enrichment of cellular oxidative stress response genes. <\/p>\n