Impacts of nursery-based propagation and out-planting on coral-associated bacterial communities

Given growing evidence for the important role of the coral microbiome, we examined the influence of nursery-based propagation and out-planting on the bacterial communities of two coral species, Acropora millepora and Pocillopora verrucosa increasingly propagated on the northern Great Barrier Reef (Opal Reef). Bacterial communities of coral fragments were characterised over four months of nursery propagation and one month of subsequent out-planting.