Ecosystems around the planet are facing increasing amounts of stress due to climate change caused by anthropogenic activities. Coral reefs are one of the most vulnerable ecosystems and are diminishing rapidly due to declining pH coupled with increasing sea surface temperature. To better understand the changes occurring in reef building corals, metabolomics can be employed as a tool to assess how the physiological state of the corals is affected by their surrounding environment. Coral samples (Porites rus) were collected near a hydrothermal vent in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the island of Maug at low (7.94 ± 0.051), mid (7.98 ± 0.027) and background (8.04 ± 0.016) pH sites. Twenty total P. Rus samples were analyzed. Metabolites were extracted from freeze dried coral tissue using a solvent system of chloroform/methanol/water and polar metabolites were isolated for analysis by 1H NMR. Metabolic profiles across the experimental samples were all metabolically similar (PCA Analysis). However, univariate analysis (ANOVA) identified specific metabolite differences between sites. Fourteen metabolites were annotated in the P. rus metabolic profile. While there have been previous studies that have analyzed the coral metabolome and demonstrated the effectiveness of 1H NMR as a tool, this is one of the first studies examining how the metabolome of the coral responds to ocean acidification with the utilization 1H NMR.

Coral's response to climate change: Characterization of coral's metabolome under varied pH conditions

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.