2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Identifying "super corals" in Mauritius: what physiological factors promote high recovery after bleaching?

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	18KK0298
Research Category	Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research (Fostering Joint International Research (B))
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Review Section	Medium-sized Section 64:Environmental conservation measure and related fields
Research Institution	Shizuoka University
Principal Investigator	CASARETO Beatriz 静岡大学, 創造科学技術大学院, 特任教授 (60402244)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	藤原健智静岡大学, 創造科学技術大学院, 教授 (80209121) 鈴木利幸静岡県立大学, 食品栄養科学部, 研究補助員 (80537283) 天野豊己静岡大学, 理学部, 准教授 (90297945) RAMPHUL CHITRA 静岡大学, 創造科学技術大学院, 研究員 (20832661) Aussanee Yamaguchi 静岡大学, 創造科学技術大学院, 研究員 (00830374)
Project Period (FY)	2018-10-09 – 2024-03-31
Keywords	Mauritius / Super Coral / coral bleaching / oxidative stress / thermal tolerant / genome analysis / Symbiodiniaceae / physiological factor
Outline of Final Research Achievements	This study describes the physiological characteristics of thermally tolerant corals defined as “super corals". We surveyed four reef sites and studied around 20 corals species. Corals in BM were highly exposed to stressful conditions showing high allomer/Chl-a ratio indicating oxidative stress of symbionts, and high glycerol/glucose ratio indicating a stressful state of the whole coral holobiont. Nevertheless, some corals kept healthy zooxanthellae with high Chl-a per cell and high Fv/Fm. High % of Endozoicomonas (Gamma-proteobacteria) and Symbiodiniaceae of Clade D (Genus Durusdinium) (thermal resistant) in Pocillopora spp. confirmed their healthy state and “super coral” features. In terms of coral species, Pocillopora eydouxi, Pavona spp., Galaxea and Stylophora spp. were classified as "super corals". We published a total of 10 scientific papers and participated in two international symposia (15th ICRS and 5th APCRS) during the whole project.
Free Research Field	Marine biology
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	モーリシャスサンゴとサンゴ礁保全のためのサンゴの新たな革新的な生理学的研究を開発し、サンゴの環境適応と白化回復の機構を科学的に明らかにした。モーリシャス大学やNGO等の人材育成を通じて保全のための新たな技術や知識を普及し、大学院生の論文掲載や大学や政府に保全の科学的提言をした。