Effects of future climate on coral-coral competition

most common corals remaining on Caribbean reefs [42]. Competition with P. astreoides nega- tively impacted M. cavernosa and O. faveolata in areas of direct contact regardless of climate treatment, however P. astreoides became more negatively impacted by contact with the other two corals in areas of direct contact under predicted levels of OA and warming. Many experiments evaluating the effect of OA on coral reef competitive interactions have found that high CO2 either enhances the susceptibility of the weaker competitor to the stron- ger competitor (e.g. high CO2 enhancing algal competition over corals [55]), reverses the com- petitive dynamics (e.g. in damselfish [56]), affects intraspecific competition more strongly Fig 5. Lesion size and tissue mortality at Day 7 and Day 14. Lesion size (means ±SE) (A and B) and Area of Tissue mortality (means ±SE) (C and D) for each coral in contact with the other at day 7 (A and C) and day 14 (B and D). Lesion area is the area of each coral that exhibited discolored coral tissue plus the area where coral tissues have died and been lost. Area of tissue mortality corresponds to areas of bare skeleton with no living tissue. Analyzed with two-way Permutational ANOVA comparing species and climate. Dots represent individual data points. N = 6. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235465.g005 PLOS ONE Climate change alters coral-coral competition PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235465 August 13, 2020 10 / 16