Evaluating the role of coral trophic strategies in driving community shifts in response to heat stress via stable isotopes-based modeling

BACKGROUND: Corals are increasingly threatened by global climate change, which may lead to shifts in their community on geographic scales. Reef-building corals are mixotrophic and may increase heterotrophy to bolster their resilience to environmental stress. However, many studies only focus on trophic strategies at the species or genus level, overlooking whether the change in these strategies may cause community shifts. RESULTS: N), Bayesian mixing models, and a kernel utilization density niche approach, we found that during summer, corals with larger SDI, non-competitive life history strategies, and robust evolutionary trajectory relied more on heterotrophy, a pattern suggesting greater resilience to thermal stress. These results are consistent with field observations, where coral groups with greater reliance on heterotrophy maintained their relative abundance after a local bleaching event. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that trophic strategies, inferred from summer states, may play a role in coral resilience and provide new insights into how coral reefs may respond to climate change.