Coral growth data for the research article "Reconstruction of long-term sub-lethal effects of warming on a temperate coral in a climate change hotspot" in Journal of Animal Ecology

This repository contains the coral growth data files used to generate the results for the following article:

MJ. Vergotti, JP. D’Olivo, T. Brachert, P. Capdevila, J. Garrabou, C. Linares, P. Spreter, DK. Kersting (2024) Reconstruction of long-term sub-lethal effects of warming on a temperate coral in a climate change hot-spot. Journal of Animal Ecology. https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.14225

Abstract: The impact of warming on zooxanthellate corals is widespread, from tropical to temperate seas, with their associated mortalities causing global concern. The temperate coral Cladocora caespitosa is the only zooxanthellate coral with reef-building capacity in the Mediterranean Sea, a climate change hotspot with warming rates triple the global average. Over the past two decades, C. caespitosa populations have suffered severe mortality events associated with marine heatwaves (MHWs). However, with monitoring efforts beginning, at best, in the 2000s, the occurrence of MHWs before to that period, as well as the sub-lethal effects of these events remain poorly understood. Here we use sclerochronology to reconstruct the histories of past stress events and long-term sub-lethal effects on C. caespitosa in three locations within the NW Mediterranean Sea, each with different environmental conditions. Skeletal extension, density and calcification rates were compared to the in situ seawater temperature of each site to assess their relationship. Additionally, we assessed the occurrence of skeletal growth anomalies to reconstruct stress events between 1991 and 2021, a period that encompasses the onset and evolution of warming-related mass mortality events in the NW Mediterranean Sea. Our results reveal a positive association between calcification and temperature, following a latitudinal temperature gradient. However, the evolution of the likelihood distribution of growth rates in the warmest site (Columbretes Islands) since the 1990s indicates a decrease in linear extension and calcification rates during the most recent years. With the increase in the frequency of MHWs and growth anomalies during the last decade, this decline suggests a recurrence in physiological stress events. These results unravel information on the long-term impacts of warming on coral growth and highlight the potential of applying sclerochronology to reconstruct sub-lethal effects of warming using C. caespitosa. 

Funding: This research is supported by the Horizon 2020 program of research and innovation of the European Union under the MaCoBioS grant agreement, by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation, project no. 401447620) and by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities under the project UndResCoral (project no. PID2022-137539OA-C22). D.K.K. was supported by a Ramon y Cajal postdoctoral grant funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (PEICTI 2021–2023; grant no. RYC2021-033576-I).  C.L. acknowledges the support by ICREA Academia. J.G. acknowledges the grant “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S) funded by AEI 10.13039/501100011033.