TY - JOUR
T1 - Depth related adaptations in symbiont bearing benthic foraminifera
T2 - New insights from a field experiment on Operculina ammonoides
AU - Oron, Shai
AU - Abramovich, Sigal
AU - Almogi-Labin, Ahuva
AU - Woeger, Julia
AU - Erez, Jonathan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s).
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - Large benthic foraminifera (LBF) are marine calcifying protists that commonly harbor algae as symbionts. These organisms are major calcium carbonate producers and important contributors to primary production in the photic zones. Light is one of the main known factors limiting their distribution, and species of this group developed specific mechanisms that allow them to occupy different habitats across the light gradient. Operculina ammonoides (Gronovius, 1781) is a planispiral LBF that has two main shell morphotypes, thick involute and flat evolute. Earlier studies suggested morphologic changes with variation in water depth and presumably light. In this study, specimens of the two morphotypes were placed in the laboratory under artificial low light and near the sea floor at depths of 15 m, 30 m, and 45 m in the Gulf of Aqaba-Eilat for 23 days. Differences in growth and symbionts content were evaluated using weight, size, and chlorophyll a. Our results show that O. ammonoides exhibit morphological plasticity when constructing thinner chambers after relocation to low light conditions, and adding more weight per area after relocation to high light conditions. In addition, O. ammonoides exhibited chlorophyll content adaptation to a certain range of light conditions, and evolute specimens that were acclimatized to very low light did not survive relocation to a high light environment, possibly due to photo-oxidative stress.
AB - Large benthic foraminifera (LBF) are marine calcifying protists that commonly harbor algae as symbionts. These organisms are major calcium carbonate producers and important contributors to primary production in the photic zones. Light is one of the main known factors limiting their distribution, and species of this group developed specific mechanisms that allow them to occupy different habitats across the light gradient. Operculina ammonoides (Gronovius, 1781) is a planispiral LBF that has two main shell morphotypes, thick involute and flat evolute. Earlier studies suggested morphologic changes with variation in water depth and presumably light. In this study, specimens of the two morphotypes were placed in the laboratory under artificial low light and near the sea floor at depths of 15 m, 30 m, and 45 m in the Gulf of Aqaba-Eilat for 23 days. Differences in growth and symbionts content were evaluated using weight, size, and chlorophyll a. Our results show that O. ammonoides exhibit morphological plasticity when constructing thinner chambers after relocation to low light conditions, and adding more weight per area after relocation to high light conditions. In addition, O. ammonoides exhibited chlorophyll content adaptation to a certain range of light conditions, and evolute specimens that were acclimatized to very low light did not survive relocation to a high light environment, possibly due to photo-oxidative stress.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85049017768&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-018-27838-8
DO - 10.1038/s41598-018-27838-8
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.article???
C2 - 29934603
AN - SCOPUS:85049017768
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 8
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
IS - 1
M1 - 9560
ER -