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Improving Coral Restoration Outcomes through Novel Molecular Applications
No full textCoral reef ecosystems are declining globally from numerous stressors, including localized pollution, disease, and marine heatwaves induced by climate change. To preserve these ecosystems, it is critical to identify corals that can withstand stressors—primarily future marine heatwaves—and prioritize them for coral restoration efforts until these stressors are mitigated. Coral responses to thermal stress can be influenced by several partners, including mutualistic microalgae and a vast prokaryotic community. Here, I use advanced molecular techniques to examine which partners (coral host, algal symbiont, and microbial communities) are associated with coral health, how they contribute to holobiont physiology, and their potential to increase coral resilience to climate change. In the first chapter, I review how different partners contribute to coral physiology and describe their potential for improving coral resilience. In the second chapter, I investigate the effects of host and symbiont genotype interactions on coral growth rate, finding host effects but no symbiont effects. In the third chapter, I explore whether common physiological metrics and prokaryotic communities are predictive of thermal stress outcomes prior to the onset of thermal stress, identifying multiple traits and taxa correlated with coral mortality. In the fourth chapter, I assess the utility of characterizing coral reef sediment prokaryotic communities to monitor coral reef health, specifically for reefs under active restoration, advocating for focused, site-specific methodologies. This research advances our understanding of factors associated with coral and ecosystem resilience and should improve the efficacy of coral restoration programs
Bats surf storm fronts during spring migration
No full textLong-distance migration, common in passerine birds, is rare and poorly studied in bats. Piloting a 1.2-gram IoT (Internet of Things) tag with onboard processing, we tracked the daily location, temperature, and activity of female common noctules ( Nyctalus noctula ) during spring migration across central Europe up to 1116 kilometers. Over 3 years, 71 bats migrated tens to hundreds of kilometers per night, predominantly with incoming warm fronts, which provided them with wind support. Bats also showed unexpected flexibility in their ability to migrate across a wide range of conditions if needed. However, females leaving toward the end of the season showed higher total activity per distance traveled, a possible cost for their flexible migration timing
An annually resolved 5700-year storm archive reveals drivers of Caribbean cyclone frequency
No full textPredictions of tropical cyclone (TC) frequencies are hampered by insufficient knowledge of their natural variability in the past. A 30-m-long sediment core from the Great Blue Hole, a marine sinkhole offshore Belize, provides the longest available, continuous, and annually resolved TC-frequency record. This record expands our understanding, derived from instrumental monitoring (73 years), historical documentations (173 years), and paleotempestological records (2000 years), to the past 5700 years. A total of 694 event layers were identified. They display a distinct regional trend of increasing storminess in the southwestern Caribbean, which follows an orbitally driven shift in the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Superimposed short-term variations match Holocene climate intervals and originate from solar irradiance–controlled sea-surface temperature anomalies and climate phenomena modes. A 21st-century extrapolation suggests an unprecedented increase in TC frequency, attributable to the Industrial Age warming
