The Winning Team: ecological genomics of the great star coral cryptic species complex

Florida coral reefs are declining dramatically since 1980’s, but there are still some coral species that are doing surprisingly well, such as the great star coral Montastrea cavernosa. According to recent analysis, this species is composed of six genetically distinct but otherwise identical-looking lineages, termed the “cryptic species”. The investigators hypothesize that the remarkable resilience of M. cavernosa comes both from ecological differentiation and ecological redundancy among its constituent cryptic species.

Cryptic species complexes are very common in corals, and our project is designed to elucidate fundamental aspects of their ecology and adaptation. Results from this project will help guide future coral reef management, conservation, and restoration. The data from this project are being used for training early-career marine biologists in ecological genomics, and support one graduate and two undergraduate students.

The charismatic and fragile nature of reef-building corals makes the project an ideal vehicle to reach out to the general public about the challenges marine ecosystems are now experiencing.

To test the hypothesis, transcriptomics are being used to estimate the relative importances of within-cryptic-species plasticity and between-cryptic-species ecological differentiation for survival of the M. cavernosa cryptic species complex as a whole under stress. The team is using samples from common garden and reciprocal transplantation experiments, and will also apply genomics to determine whether cryptic species share adaptive genetic variants.

This project is supported by the Biological Oceanography Program and Evolutionary Processes Cluster.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.