College Honors Program

Date of Creation

4-23-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Environmental Science

First Advisor

Justin McAlister

Second Advisor

Elizabeth Burmester

Abstract

Understanding coral reef health requires comprehension of the biological processes that support live coral cover. Corals are frequently exposed to physical abrasion from various sources, thereby necessitating vital resources be directed towards wound recovery. For corals and other organisms that harbor photosynthetic symbionts, the balance between autotrophic versus heterotrophic energy contributions influences their fitness. Experimentally disentangling the individual effects of environmental stress and symbiotic state on coral health is difficult in most tropical corals due to the obligate nature of their symbiosis. However, determining how nutritional dynamics, environmental stressors, and health interact is crucial to understanding coral resilience. To examine how coral-algal symbiosis and stress tolerance interact, this study examines wound recovery of a particularly resilient, temperate and facultatively symbiotic coral, Astrangia poculata. Unlike most tropical corals, A. poculata can healthily maintain a spectrum of symbiotic states, from fully symbiotic to fully aposymbiotic. Results from previous projects using corals of different symbiotic states suggest that there is a difference in the ability of symbiotic states to heal controlled experimental lesions while being exposed to environmental pollutants, such as tire dust leachate. This study has 2 demonstrated chemicals leached from tire particles and the physical particles themselves are pollutants that decrease the amount of energy that A. poculata can obtain for itself through interference in both autotrophic and heterotrophic pathways.

Comments

Reader: Stephanie Crofts

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