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Review
. 2021 Jun 7:12:656562.
doi: 10.3389/fphys.2021.656562. eCollection 2021.

Experimental Techniques to Assess Coral Physiology in situ Under Global and Local Stressors: Current Approaches and Novel Insights

Walter Dellisanti  1   2 , Jeffery T H Chung  1 , Cher F Y Chow  1   3 , Jiajun Wu  1 , Mark L Wells  4   5 , Leo L Chan  1   2   6
Affiliations
Review

Experimental Techniques to Assess Coral Physiology in situ Under Global and Local Stressors: Current Approaches and Novel Insights

Walter Dellisanti et al. Front Physiol. .

Abstract

Coral reefs are declining worldwide due to global changes in the marine environment. The increasing frequency of massive bleaching events in the tropics is highlighting the need to better understand the stages of coral physiological responses to extreme conditions. Moreover, like many other coastal regions, coral reef ecosystems are facing additional localized anthropogenic stressors such as nutrient loading, increased turbidity, and coastal development. Different strategies have been developed to measure the health status of a damaged reef, ranging from the resolution of individual polyps to the entire coral community, but techniques for measuring coral physiology in situ are not yet widely implemented. For instance, while there are many studies of the coral holobiont response in single or limited-number multiple stressor experiments, they provide only partial insights into metabolic performance under more complex and temporally and spatially variable natural conditions. Here, we discuss the current status of coral reefs and their global and local stressors in the context of experimental techniques that measure core processes in coral metabolism (respiration, photosynthesis, and biocalcification) in situ, and their role in indicating the health status of colonies and communities. We highlight the need to improve the capability of in situ studies in order to better understand the resilience and stress response of corals under multiple global and local scale stressors.

Keywords: coral metabolism; environmental monitoring; fluorometry; photobiology; underwater respirometry.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Local and global impacts affecting the nutritional energy of reef-building corals. Full lines indicate direct interactions; dotted lines indicate indirect interactions.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Study objectives of in situ methodologies for the measurement of coral physiology.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Global map of scientific studies cited in this review. The reference identification numbers are listed in Table 1.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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