Meeting Abstract

S3.11  Monday, Jan. 4  Climate Change and Invertebrate Microbial Interactions HARVELL, C.D.*; HEWSON, I.; Cornell University; Cornell University cdh5@cornell.edu

A frontier of invertebrate biology is the interaction between micro-organisms and their hosts. These interactions span the range from symbiotic to parasitic, and even a single microbe-host interaction can change depending on its environment. Some of the best known microbial associations of invertebrates include the surface microbial community of corals, light producing symbionts of cephalopods, and chemical producing symbionts of sponges, cnidarians and bryozoans. These associations with bacteria highlight symbioses that likely exemplify much greater dependence on microbial partnerships across the entire invertebrate spectrum. I will focus on the ecology of surface microbial interactions of invertebrates and how these associations are shaped by constraint and contingency, although admittedly we are poised on a frontier with many knowledge gaps. Surface microbial symbionts appear particularly susceptible to changing climate and stresses of warming temperatures and acidifying oceans. I will give examples of our work with surface microbial communities of littorine snails and gorgonian corals and how these are impacted by changing acidification.