Broad thermal tolerance of the symbiotic dinoflagellate Symbiodinium muscatinei (Dinophyta) in the sea anemone Anthopleura elegantissima (Cnidaria) from northern latitudes

The sea anemone Anthopleura elegantissima (Brandt) hosts two species of symbiotic dinoflagellates, known as zooxanthellae, which coexist within the host at southern latitudes only. One of these species, Symbiodinium muscatinei LaJeunesse et Trench, has a broad latitudinal distribution, occurring in intertidal anemones from Washington state to Southern California. To investigate whether high thermal tolerance contributes to the ability of S. muscatinei to inhabit anemones from northern and southern regions, the upper thermal tolerance limit for photosynthesis of symbionts in northern (48 degrees 24' N) populations of A. elegantissima was determined by subjecting anemones to a gradual increase in temperature from 12 degrees C to 30 degrees C over a 10-week period. Light-saturated photosynthetic rates of isolated zooxanthellae were the same over the range of 12 degrees C-24 degrees C and declined significantly at 26 degrees C, which is 14 degrees C and 5 degrees C above average summertime seawater temperatures in northern Puget Sound and Southern California, respectively. At 28 degrees C, zooxanthellae isolated from the anemones, and those expelled by their hosts, exhibited extremely low rates of photosynthesis and highly reduced chl content. The photosynthetic rates and chl content of expelled zooxanthellae were lower than those of retained zooxanthellae. The high thermal tolerance of S. muscatinei isolated from northern populations of anemones supports the broad latitudinal distribution of this symbiont, allowing it to coexist with S. californium (#383, Banaszak et al. 1993) in southern populations of anemones.