With increasing exposure to local and global stressors associated with a rapidly changing climate, corals adapted to thrive within stressful environments are of particular interest to researchers and managers. A bleaching resilient Porites coral with an unusual appearance was discovered dominating shallow waters (1–2 m) within Honolulu Harbor, Hawai‘i, a heavily sedimented and polluted habitat with high levels of anthropogenic influence. Continuous monitoring of this ‘Harbor Porites’ revealed prolific year-round brooding and release of planula larvae, with no clear seasonal pattern. Furthermore, recruitment and rapid growth were observed in seawater tanks followed by fusing of various sized colonies, indicating brooding of clonal larvae. Genetic markers placed this coral with high similarity (histone and ITS sequences are 99.9% and 99.4% similar, respectively) to corals in the P. lobata species complex which are gonochoric broadcast spawning corals. Fixed differences were observed, and FST values were high and significant, which could either be explained by reproductive isolation or from clonal sampling over a limited area (this coral has not yet been found in other locations). Observations of skeletal microstructure also showed similarity to corals in the P. lobata complex, although with a higher proportion of corallites with excavated columella resulting in a cavity similar in size to the brooded larvae. These observations suggest that bleaching resilience and reproductive mode may be more plastic than previously assumed for Porites corals. Additional work is needed to determine if these corals represent a very recent endemic species, an introduced coral, the result of reproductive disruption from pollution (e.g., endocrine disruption), or extreme phenotypic variation within the P. lobata complex. Prolific growth and production of larvae, combined with observations of resilience to anthropogenic impacts such as bleaching, sedimentation, and pollution, make this coral a good candidate model for the study of adaptation and acclimatization to climate change and other anthropogenic stressors.

中文翻译：

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广播产卵 Porites lobata 物种复合体中的弹性育雏珊瑚：新的地方性、引进物种、突变体或新的适应潜力？

随着越来越多地暴露于与快速变化的气候相关的本地和全球压力源，研究人员和管理人员对适应在压力环境中茁壮成长的珊瑚特别感兴趣。在夏威夷檀香山港内的浅水区（1-2 m）发现了一种具有不寻常外观的具有漂白弹性的 Porites 珊瑚，这是一个严重沉积和污染的栖息地，具有高度的人为影响。对这个“海港海鸥”的持续监测显示，浮萍幼虫全年繁殖和释放，没有明显的季节性模式。此外，在海水池中观察到募集和快速生长，随后融合了各种大小的菌落，表明克隆幼虫正在孵化。遗传标记使这种珊瑚具有很高的相似性（组蛋白和 ITS 序列有 99.9% 和 99.4% 的相似性，分别）到 P. lobata 物种复合体中的珊瑚，它们是淋病广播产卵珊瑚。观察到固定差异，FST 值高且显着，这可以通过生殖隔离或有限区域的克隆采样来解释（这种珊瑚尚未在其他地方发现）。骨骼微观结构的观察也显示出与 P. lobata 复合体中的珊瑚相似，尽管珊瑚石的比例更高，带有挖掘的小柱，导致腔体大小与育雏幼虫相似。这些观察结果表明，漂白恢复力和繁殖模式可能比以前对 Porites 珊瑚的假设更具可塑性。需要额外的工作来确定这些珊瑚是否代表了最近的特有物种，引入的珊瑚，污染造成的生殖中断（例如内分泌中断），或 P. lobata 复合体中的极端表型变异。幼虫的大量生长和生产，再加上对漂白、沉积和污染等人为影响的恢复能力的观察，使这种珊瑚成为研究气候变化和其他人为压力源的适应和适应的良好候选模型。