Parental bleaching susceptibility leads to differences in larval fluorescence and dispersal potential in Pocillopora acuta corals

Coral reef ecosystems are declining at an alarming rate. Increasing seawater temperatures and occurrence of extreme warming events can impair sexual reproduction in reef-building corals and inhibit the ability for coral communities to replenish and persist. Here, we investigated the role of photophysiology on the reproductive ecology of Pocillopora acuta coral colonies by focusing on the impacts of bleaching susceptibility of parents on reproduction and larval performance, during an El Niño Southern Oscillation event in Mo'orea, French Polynesia. Elevated temperature conditions at that time induced bleaching phenotypic differences among P. acuta individuals: certain colonies became pale (from the loss of pigments and/or decline in symbiont cell density), while others remained pigmented (normal/high symbiont cell density). More specifically, we studied the impact of parental phenotypes on offspring's fluorescence by counting released larvae and sorting them by fluorescence types, we assessed survival to thermal stress, recruitment success and post-recruitment survival of released larvae from each fluorescent phenotype, during summer months (February to April 2016). Our results showed that red and green fluorescent larvae released by P. acuta had distinct physiological performances: red fluorescent larvae exhibited a higher survival into the pelagic phase regardless temperature conditions, with lower capacity to settle and survive post-recruitment, compared to green larvae that settle within a short period. Interestingly, pale colonies released two-to seven-fold more red fluorescent larvae than pigmented colonies did. In the light of our results, photophysiological profiles of the brooding P. acuta parental colonies may modulate the fluorescence features of released larvae, and thus influence the dispersal strategy of their offspring, the green fluorescent larval phenotypes being more performant in the benthic than pelagic phase.