Coral bleaching events are predicted to become more frequent and severe in the future; however, there is substantial variation within populations in bleaching susceptibility and the ability to recover. In April and May 2019, the French Polynesian island of Moorea experienced a massive heat anomaly, resulting in the most severe mass bleaching event ever recorded for the island. At the most severely impacted sites, 80% of Acropora colonies bleached or died, although we observed differences in the prevalence and severity of bleaching across sites and reef zones. Further, within highly impacted sites, we observed Acropora hyacinthus showing signs of symbiont recovery by August 2019, with full recovery of most colonies by October 2019, suggesting that these corals harbor mechanisms to persist and recover following extreme thermal stress. Here, we aimed to understand if differences in energetic components and symbiont community composition explain the two observed survival strategies of resistance and recovery in Acropora hyacinthus colonies along the north shore of Moorea. We collected small coral fragments 0, 3, and 5 months post-bleaching from colonies located in three reef zones (forereef, crest, and backreef) for amplicon sequencing of the ITS2 region to characterize the Symbiodiniaceae community diversity, as well as samples to quantify changes in host protein reserves. Ultimately, this study will reveal spatial and temporal variation in resistance and recovery strategies of natural coral populations faced with climate change-induced heat stress.