Increase in sea surface temperature and excessive input of nutrient in reef waters, due to anthropogenic activities have been among the various factors responsible for bleaching and mortality of corals around the world. So, this study investigated the effects of elevated nitrate (NO
3) concentration and temperature on the coral,
Pocillopora damicornis. Coral fragments were incubated for two days at different temperatures (27°C and 32°C) and NO
3 concentrations (∼0.4 μM and 10 μM). Following 48 hours of stress under 32°C and 10 μM NO
3, the nubbins were moved to 27°C and ambient (∼0.4 μM) NO
3 levels for 48 hours of recovery period. Maximum quantum yield (
Fv /Fm) and maximum excitation pressure (
Qm) at photosystem II indicated that combined effect of high temperature and high NO
3 were more severe and only corals under these conditions exhibited an incomplete recovery. Furthermore, zooxanthellae density and pigment data showed that the response mechanism of these coral nubbins were different from high temperature or high NO
3 stress only. Aftre the recovery phase, zooxanthellae density was higher (∼1.5 fold) whereas chlorophyll
a per cell was lower (∼1.5 fold) than the control (27°C and ∼0.4 μM NO
3) for combined stress of high nitrate and temperature. On the other hand, xanthophyll ratio for these nubbins was still significantly higher than the control, thus showing a possible mechanism of recovery by dissipating excess loght energy as heat. Hence, this study showed that under thermal stress, high nitrate amplifies damage to the
in hospite zooxanthellae of the coral
Pocillopora damicornis and recovery of the holobiont is more diffi cult after the stress.
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