Coral reef ecosystems are declining at an alarming rate. Increasing seawater temperatures and occurrence of extreme warming events can impair sexual reproduction in reef-building corals and inhibit the ability for coral communities to replenish and persist. Here, we investigated the role of photophysiology on the reproductive ecology of Pocillopora acuta coral colonies by focusing on the impacts of bleaching susceptibility of parents on reproduction and larval performance, during an El Niño Southern Oscillation event in Mo'orea, French Polynesia. Elevated temperature conditions at that time induced bleaching phenotypic differences among P. acuta individuals: certain colonies became pale (from the loss of pigments and/or decline in symbiont cell density), while others remained pigmented (normal/high symbiont cell density). More specifically, we studied the impact of parental phenotypes on offspring's fluorescence by counting released larvae and sorting them by fluorescence types, we assessed survival to thermal stress, recruitment success and post-recruitment survival of released larvae from each fluorescent phenotype, during summer months (February to April 2016). Our results showed that red and green fluorescent larvae released by P. acuta had distinct physiological performances: red fluorescent larvae exhibited a higher survival into the pelagic phase regardless temperature conditions, with lower capacity to settle and survive post-recruitment, compared to green larvae that settle within a short period. Interestingly, pale colonies released two-to seven-fold more red fluorescent larvae than pigmented colonies did. In the light of our results, photophysiological profiles of the brooding P. acuta parental colonies may modulate the fluorescence features of released larvae, and thus influence the dispersal strategy of their offspring, the green fluorescent larval phenotypes being more performant in the benthic than pelagic phase.

珊瑚礁生态系统的下降速度惊人。海水温度升高和极端变暖事件的发生会损害造礁珊瑚的生殖繁殖，并抑制珊瑚群落补充和持久生存的能力。在这里，我们在法属波利尼西亚莫尼奥拉的一次厄尔尼诺南方涛动事件中，着重研究了父母对漂白敏感性对繁殖和幼体性能的影响，从而研究了光生理学对无节菌珊瑚群落生殖生态的作用。当时的温度升高导致青枯菌之间的漂白表型差异个体：某些菌落变白（由于色素损失和/或共生细胞密度下降），而其他菌落保持色素沉着（正常/高共生细胞密度）。更具体地说，我们通过计算释放的幼虫并按荧光类型对父母表型对后代荧光的影响进行了研究，我们评估了在夏季月份中每种荧光表型对热应激的存活率，募集成功率和释放后的幼体的招聘后存活率（ 2016年2月至2016年4月）。我们的研究结果显示，通过发布了红色和绿色荧光幼虫P.蚧具有独特的生理表现：红色荧光幼虫在温度条件下均表现出较高的进入中上层阶段的存活率，而与在短期内沉降的绿色幼虫相比，其在征募后的沉降和存活能力较低。有趣的是，苍白菌落释放的红色荧光幼虫比色素菌落释放的幼虫多2至7倍。根据我们的研究结果，孵化的铜绿假单胞菌亲本菌落的光生理特征可能会调节释放的幼虫的荧光特征，从而影响其后代的扩散策略，绿色荧光幼虫表型在底栖生物中的表现要好于远洋阶段。 。