Fig. 1: Field sites are located in the upper Florida Keys, USA.

a A map of South Florida with the three sampled coral reefs (Carysfort Reef [CF], North Dry Rocks [NDR], and Pickles Reef [PR]) denoted by white circles. The map shows the sea surface temperature (SST) variance from 2003 to 2023. The bathymetry contours (in white) correspond to the 5, 30, 100, and 200 m isobaths. b A representative photograph of Acropora palmata of a single genet in a cluster labeled with a number or letter that was used to identify the same colony throughout the project. The scale next to the cluster is in centimeters. c Schematic of sampling scheme. The timeline represents the four sampling timepoints. The date of sampling is colored by the cooler dry season in Feb.-Mar., and Nov (navy text), and the warmer wet season of Jun.-Jul., and Sept. (red text). The blue rectangle represents a bird’s eye view representation of an outplant transect. Circles represent a single cluster within the transect. The clusters colored in blue represent genets outplanted but not analyzed in this study and may represent different genets. The blue tags represent three fragments selected for repeat sampling, and white tags are for fragments within the cluster that were not sampled. The “n = ” corresponds to only tissue samples used in microbiome analysis after quality control.