RRFB Plasticity and Epigenetics: Best Laid Plans vs Travel Bans

Year 1, Expeditions 03 + 04 - Bonaire, March 2020 + May 2021
The next expedition to Bonaire was planned for the end of March 2020, which you can now easily guess was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to her previous connections on Bonaire, one of the reasons that Serena chose to do her Ph.D. research there was the low risk of hurricane impacts on coral nursery and reef sites. However, she never would have guessed that there would be a halt in international travel due to a global pandemic. Like many other tropical islands, Bonaire quickly instituted a travel ban preventing international visitors in an effort to protect local residents from the spread of COVID-19.

Thanks to the amazing local collaborators at Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire, the project was able to continue with minimal delays. After a few virtual training sessions and a large shipment of supplies, all coral and environmental monitoring and sampling tasks were successfully completed at the two remaining seasonal timepoints. The samples have all been safely returned to our lab at Florida International University. 

The preserved coral samples are currently being analyzed for health metrics including symbiont density, chlorophyll-a concentration, total protein, and biomass. DNA has also been extracted from the coral samples that will be used for the characterization of DNA methylation patterns with the Methylation Sensitive Amplification Polymorphism, or MSAP, method which has been optimized for Acropora corals by our lab. Water samples are also being analyzed for the concentration of total Nitrogen, total Phosphorus, and dissolved inorganic nutrients. 

Serena is excited to explore connections between coral health and DNA methylation and to compare the influence of coral genotype and environmental conditions on coral performance. Preliminary results have shown differences in coral growth between corals of the same genotype that are living at different coral nursery sites. During the next phase of the project, Serena will perform a reciprocal transplant to see if these differences in performance are maintained over time through coral environmental memory. 

This work has been made possible by support from Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire, FIU CREST-CAChE, FIU Center for Coastal Oceans Research, and FIU Tropics.

”As Serena’s marine science career began with an opportunity to join a field research expedition as an undergraduate student, she was very excited for the chance to bring two of our undergraduate lab members in the field.

Bottom Time with Liz McWhinnie

Liz McWhinnie is a volunteer at RRFB. The Mission of Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire is to protect and restore coral reefs in Bonaire by developing new and innovative ways to restore reefs that are supported by research collaborations and shared worldwide.

How did you become interested in the biology of corals?

My first dive trip was back in 2004, to Bonaire! In fact, for the past few years I’ve been fortunate to work just steps away from the first reef I ever dove. Bonaire is a special place, and I wanted to give back to it in a tangible way. Understanding Bonaire’s corals and playing a role in restoring these corals is my way of showing my appreciation for the amazing people, culture, and nature of Bonaire.

How will this project help support Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire’s mission and goals?

Our coral nurseries provide our corals with ideal conditions to grow and thrive; once we take these corals from the nurseries and outplant them into the reef, these corals contend with new challenges. Understanding what makes some corals more resilient than others, and if we can provide our coral fragments with an environment that will increase their resiliency, potentially helps us increase the long-term survivorship of our outplanted corals. While our current rates of survivorship are quite good, every little bit helps restore our reefs!

How was your involvement in this project different from your typical activities at RRFB?

Working with this project allowed me to delve deeper into helping produce some of the knowledge that restoration practitioners might use to inform their methods. In particular, preparing and processing coral fragments for genetic testing really stands out as something different. Being able to assist with sampling destined for a state-of-the-art lab was very exciting given that our current lab capabilities on Bonaire are more limited.

Once this project is complete, what do you think would be the next step in coral restoration research?

As a restoration practitioner, my response is to put the findings of this research into action. If the research shows a correlation between exposure to environmental stressors and resilience, how can we adapt our methods to support greater resilience among our corals and how can this be done in a way that is realistic for small operations in remote locations?

”Understanding what makes some corals more resilient than others, and if we can provide our coral fragments with an environment that will increase their resiliency, potentially helps us increase the long-term survivorship of our outplanted corals. While our current rates of survivorship are quite good, every little bit helps restore our reefs!