title: Maternal effects andSymbiodiniumcommunity composition drive differential patterns in juvenile survival in the coralAcropora tenuis.
abstract: Coral endosymbionts in the dinoflagellate genusSymbiodiniumare known to impact host physiology and have led to the evolution of reef-building, but less is known about how symbiotic communities in early life-history stages and their interactions with host parental identity shape the structure of coral communities on reefs. Differentiating the roles of environmental and biological factors driving variation in population demographic processes, particularly larval settlement, early juvenile survival and the onset of symbiosis is key to understanding how coral communities are structured and to predicting how they are likely to respond to climate change. We show that maternal effects (that here include genetic and/or effects related to the maternal environment) can explain nearly 24% of variation in larval settlement success and 5-17% of variation in juvenile survival in an experimental study of the reef-building scleractinian coral,Acropora tenuis. After 25 days on the reef,Symbiodiniumcommunities associated with juvenile corals differed significantly between high mortality and low mortality families based on estimates of taxonomic richness, composition and relative abundance of taxa. Our results highlight that maternal and familial effects significantly explain variation in juvenile survival and symbiont communities in a broadcast-spawning coral, withSymbiodiniumtype A3 possibly a critical symbiotic partner during this early life stage.
authors.affiliation: College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia; AIMS@JCU, Australian Institute of Marine Science and James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: Kate M
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5558-1904
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Quigley
authors.affiliation: College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia; AIMS@JCU, Australian Institute of Marine Science and James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: Bette L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Willis
authors.affiliation: AIMS@JCU, Australian Institute of Marine Science and James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia; Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB 3, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia.
authors.forename: Line K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Bay
keywords: Symbiodinium; coral reef; juvenile; maternal effects; settlement; survivorship