Study
The role of zooxanthellae in the thermal tolerance of corals: a nugget of hope for coral reefs in an era of climate change
Berkelmans, Ray; van Oppen, Madeleine J. H.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2006
Coral colonies were transplanted between sites, allowing their symbiont communities to change, and then experimentally heat-stressed. Thermal tolerance was compared against which symbiont type each colony hosted.
- Studied in
- Acropora millepora, Symbiodiniaceae
- Sample size
- transplanted colonies with differing symbiont types, heat-tested
Colonies hosting a more heat-tolerant symbiont type withstood higher temperatures than colonies of the same coral species hosting a less tolerant type, and symbiont composition shifted following transplantation.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Changing symbiont partners can raise a coral’s thermal tolerance, offering some scope for acclimatisation.
How NatureHQ reads it
Included with its own title’s caution intact — the authors call it a nugget of hope, not a solution. Corals can change partners, and doing so measurably shifts the temperature they tolerate. The gain is real and modest, the more tolerant symbionts appear to give the coral less energy in return, and the shift does not keep pace with the warming the survey record documents.
- One coral species and a limited set of symbiont types.
- The heat-tolerance gain is modest, and trade-offs including reduced growth are reported.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: The Royal SocietyPublished by the Royal Society.
doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2006.3567
Checked against Crossref on 2026-09-28, and they agree on the title, the authors and the year.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-09-04.