Figure 4: Symbiodinium cell abundances and microbial community composition in corals.

Representative pigmented (a,c,e,g,i) and bleached (b,d,f,h,j) colonies of F. scutaria (a,b), M. capitata (c,d), P. damicornis (e,f), P. compressa (g,h) and P. lobata (i,j). (k) Abundance of coral-hosted Symbiodinium within pigmented and bleached specimens of each species (except F. scutaria because it was not permitted for collection) are reported as average±s.d. P values associated with the two-sample t-test of average Symbiodinium counts for bleached versus pigmented colonies of each species are provided in the upper right corner of each plot. Sample size is indicated next to each bar. (l) The bacterial and archaeal communities associated with the corals were found to be similar by coral species rather than by bleaching (BL) or pigmented (P) health state, as indicated by a cluster dendogram of bacterial and archaeal V4 SSU rRNA gene sequences from tissue and mucus samples of coral colonies, compared using Bray–Curtis similarity.