Temporal plasticity in Pocillopora corals (morphological switch between species)

What is it about?

To evaluate the temporal stability of morphospecies in situ, we monitored the shapes of individual colonies (N=300) for 44 months. Twenty-three percent of tagged colonies of Pocillopora damicornis changed to Pocillopora inflata morphology during this time. Seven months after the switch, P. inflata colonies were recovering their original P. damicornis morphology. All colonies of both morphospecies shared a common mitochondrial identity (Type 1).

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Why is it important?

This is the first in situ study to document switching between described morphospecies, and it elucidates the influence of temporal shifts in environmental conditions on morphologically plastic responses.