Octocoral Microbiome: Towards an Understanding of Octocoral-Bacteria Interactions on Florida’s Coral Reefs
Location
HCAS Guy Harvey Oceanographic Center, Nova Southeastern University
Start
2-14-2025 9:45 AM
End
2-14-2025 10:00 AM
Type of Presentation
Oral Presentation
Abstract
Bacterial communities in coral holobionts play essential roles in supporting host health and resilience. While scleractinian coral populations on Florida reefs have been devastated by marine heatwaves, disease, and other stressors, octocorals have demonstrated notable resilience and now dominate many sites. Despite this ecological significance, the octocoral microbiome remains largely understudied, with most insights extrapolated from scleractinian research. This gap limits our understanding of how bacterial assemblages contribute to octocoral resilience. This study investigates the composition and community structure of octocoral-associated bacteria across four species: Briareum asbestinum, Eunicea flexuosa, Erythropodium caribaeorum, and Muricea muricata. Samples were collected from southeast Florida during the summers of 2023 and 2024 and analyzed using 16S rRNA amplicon profiling. Our initial results reveal significant species-specific diversity, contributing to substantial differences among species. In addition, we show that growth form greatly influences differences between octocoral bacterial assemblages. Additionally, to better understand the response of the octocoral microbiome to stress conditions, colonies of Briareum asbestinum were experimentally exposed to local strain of Vibrio spp., and their microbiomes were compared with a control group. Taken together, this approach aims to catalog dominant and rare bacterial taxa associated with octocorals across varying conditions and examine microbial responses to stress. The study results can establish a baseline of bacterial communities in healthy octocoral colonies and species, shedding light on microbial contributions to the resilience of these corals in rapidly changing environments.
Octocoral Microbiome: Towards an Understanding of Octocoral-Bacteria Interactions on Florida’s Coral Reefs
HCAS Guy Harvey Oceanographic Center, Nova Southeastern University
Bacterial communities in coral holobionts play essential roles in supporting host health and resilience. While scleractinian coral populations on Florida reefs have been devastated by marine heatwaves, disease, and other stressors, octocorals have demonstrated notable resilience and now dominate many sites. Despite this ecological significance, the octocoral microbiome remains largely understudied, with most insights extrapolated from scleractinian research. This gap limits our understanding of how bacterial assemblages contribute to octocoral resilience. This study investigates the composition and community structure of octocoral-associated bacteria across four species: Briareum asbestinum, Eunicea flexuosa, Erythropodium caribaeorum, and Muricea muricata. Samples were collected from southeast Florida during the summers of 2023 and 2024 and analyzed using 16S rRNA amplicon profiling. Our initial results reveal significant species-specific diversity, contributing to substantial differences among species. In addition, we show that growth form greatly influences differences between octocoral bacterial assemblages. Additionally, to better understand the response of the octocoral microbiome to stress conditions, colonies of Briareum asbestinum were experimentally exposed to local strain of Vibrio spp., and their microbiomes were compared with a control group. Taken together, this approach aims to catalog dominant and rare bacterial taxa associated with octocorals across varying conditions and examine microbial responses to stress. The study results can establish a baseline of bacterial communities in healthy octocoral colonies and species, shedding light on microbial contributions to the resilience of these corals in rapidly changing environments.