The bacterial genus Endozoicomonas is prevalent and abundant in the microbiome of many corals, but the combination of environmental and host factors shaping its distribution remains uncertain. In this study, we used 16S rRNA gene sequencing to examine the distribution of Endozoicomonas across hard ( Porites astreoides , Montastraea cavernosa , Agaricia spp.) and soft coral ( Muricea spp., Gorgoniidae, Cladiellidae, Malacalcyon...

Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs)—reefs below 30m depth—represent distinct ecological communities that are under threat from local (e.g., fishing) and global (e.g., climate change) disturbances. However, most MCEs remain unexplored, and their ecological communities are not well characterized. MCEs on remote offshore seamounts are further unexplored and provide the opportunity to assess assembly rules from comparatively less d...

Phenotypic variability is the ability of the same species to express different phenotypes under different environmental conditions. Several coral species that exist along a broad depth distribution have been shown to differ in skeletal morphology and nutrient acquisition at different depths, which has been attributed to variability in response to differing levels of light availability. This study examined the phenotypic variab...

As the devastating impacts of global climate change and local anthropogenic stressors on shallow-water coral reefs are expected to rise, mesophotic coral ecosystems have increasingly been regarded as potential lifeboats for coral survival, providing a source of propagules to replenish shallower reefs. Yet, there is still limited knowledge of the capacity for coral larvae to adjust to light intensities that change with depth. T...

Coral recruitment represents a key element for coral reef persistence and resilience in the face of environmental disturbances. Studying coral recruitment patterns is fundamental for assessing reef health and implementing appropriate management strategies in an era of climate change. The FluorIS system has been developed to acquire high resolution, wide field-of-view (FOV) in situ images of coral recruits fluorescence and has...

Reef‐building corals respond to the temporal integration of both pulse events (i.e., heat waves) and press thermal history (i.e., local environment) via physiological changes, with ecological consequences. We used a “press‐pulse‐press” experimental framework to expose the brooding coral Porites astreoides to various thermal histories to understand the physiological response of temporal dynamics within and across generations. W...