Extremely heat tolerant photo-symbiosis in a shallow marine benthic foraminifera.

ABSTRACT: Bleaching, the loss of algal symbionts, occurs in marine photosymbiotic organisms at water temperatures minimally exceeding average summer SST (sea surface temperatures). Pre-adaptation allows organisms to persist under warmer conditions, providing the tolerance can be carried to new habitats. Here we provide evidence for the existence of such adaptation in the benthic foraminifera Pararotalia calcariformata. This species occurs at a thermally polluted site in the Mediterranean, where water temperatures reach a maxima daily average of 36 °C during the summer. To test whether this occurrence represents a widespread adaptation, we conducted manipulative experiments exposing this species from an unpolluted site to elevated temperatures (20-42 °C). It was kept in co-culture with the more therm

SUBMITTER: Schmidt C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4977509 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature