Impacts of bleaching on the soft coral Lobophytum compactum. II. Biochemical changes in adults and their eggs

Experimental bleaching reduces the levels of important biochemical paramete rs in adult tissues and eggs of the soft coral Lobophytum compactum. Protei n, lipid, mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) and carotenoid concentrations remained lower in bleached adults than in controls for at least 8 months. Reductions in concentrations of all four parameters were greater in eggs th an in maternal tissues, potentially jeopardizing egg and larval viability. In particular, reductions in lipids, proteins and carotenoids in tissues of heavily bleached soft corals were amplified approximately twofold in eggs. In comparison: amplification of maternal tissue reductions were not as gre at for MAAs suggesting that MAAs are given higher priority in egg provision ing. Our finding that MAA levels are normally three times higher in eggs th an in unbleached maternal tissues supports the importance of MAAs for larva l survival. Twenty months after experimental bleaching the biochemical comp osition of both adult tissues and their eggs were indistinguishable from th ose of control (unbleached) soft corals.