{"id":1982,"date":"2022-09-30T18:43:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T18:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-usc-dornsife.pantheonsite.io\/wrigley\/?p=1982"},"modified":"2025-07-08T21:39:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T21:39:37","slug":"anemones-and-their-algal-partners-in-extreme-environments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wrigley\/2022\/09\/30\/anemones-and-their-algal-partners-in-extreme-environments\/","title":{"rendered":"Anemones and their algal partners in extreme environments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Maria sampling anemones during low tide.
\n(Photo by Maria Ruggeri)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Anemones and their algal partners in extreme environments<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n By<\/span>Maria Ruggeri<\/strong>\n \n September 30, 2022<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Hi there!\u00a0My name is Maria Ruggeri. I am a 5th-year PhD candidate at the University of Southern California in\u00a0Carly Kenkel\u2019s lab<\/a>\u00a0and this summer\u2019s\u00a0Victoria J Bertics Wrigley Fellow!<\/a>\u00a0I study intertidal sea anemones to identify strategies we can use to save coral reefs. Continue reading below to learn how!<\/p>\n

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Both corals and sea anemones are part animal, and part plant! Anemones and their coral cousins form a life-long partnership with marine algae, which live inside of their tentacles and give the animals their brown\/green color. The algae, like other plants, photosynthesize to produce sugars, which the animal host can eat. In return for food, the host give the algae a safe place to live with lots of light. However, when the animal host is stressed out, such as on a really hot day, it will kick its algae friends out (I\u2019m sure most of us can relate\u00a0\ud83d\ude09).<\/p>\n

Corals are very sensitive to temperature and will die if they go too long without their algae friends \u2014 this is why climate change is the main threat to coral reefs worldwide!! Unlike corals, some anemones and their algae can survive EXTREME temperatures during low tide. So how do they survive when a coral would die?? One hypothesis could be that the anemones are resilient \u2014 they kick out their algae on hot days, but they recover their algae when temperatures cool down. Another hypothesis is that the anemones are resistant to high temperatures \u2013 meaning they are not stressed by high temperatures at all and let the algae stay!<\/p>\n

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Conceptual image of symbiosis between a host anemone and its algal partners.
(Photo by Maria Ruggeri)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This summer, I sampled anemone tentacles (don\u2019t worry, their tentacles grow back \u263a) every day for one-week during a natural tidal cycle to see whether anemones were resilient or resistant to high temperatures. This allowed me to capture very hot days, followed by cooler, less stressful days when the anemone would have had a chance to recover.<\/p>\n

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To see if the anemone kicked out the algae or not, I extract DNA from my tentacle samples in the lab and measure the amount of animal DNA to the amount of algae DNA. If an anemone is resilient, the amount of algae DNA should decrease during hot days, but increase on cooler days. If an anemone is resistant, the amount of algae DNA should stay constant all week, regardless of temperature.<\/p>\n

Although I am still working hard in the lab to get these answers, I do have some ideas on how these anemones may be surviving in this extreme environment. From my lab experiments, anemones living in more extreme environments appear to be acclimated to higher temperature. Like humans acclimating lower oxygen at high elevations, these anemones can adjust their physiology to better cope with temperature. Anemones acclimated to more extreme environments let more algae stay after heat stress. The algae also seem to be acclimated to high temperature and can maintain photosynthesis even when stressed!<\/p>\n

This is potentially good news for coral because it means if they can survive through heat waves, they may build up some tolerance for the next heat wave! However, with every answer comes more questions \u2013 How long does this resistance last? Will acclimation be able to keep up with the rate of climate change? Stay tuned for more answers from your favorite anemone,\u00a0Anthopleura elegantissima<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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