Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Marine Biology (2019) 166:131 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-019-3580-7 SHORT NOTES Temperature‑driven secondary competence windows may increase the dispersal potential of invasive sun corals Andreia C. C. Barbosa 1  · Catarina Vinagre 2  · Damián Mizrahi 3  · Augusto A. V. Flores 1 Received: 13 June 2019 / Accepted: 31 August 2019 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Invasive sun corals exhibit outstanding development plasticity during early ontogenesis, which may greatly afect the pelagic duration of propagules and hence their dispersal potential. Remarkably, a small proportion of larvae may not directly settle on the benthic habitat, but metamorphose to planktonic polyps. We show the latter may settle successfully, eventually open- ing a secondary competence window (SCW). Based on local conditions (Southeast Brazil), delayed SCWs were confrmed at average summer (26 °C) and, especially, at heat-wave (30 °C) temperature, allowing an escape response from habitats where larval mortality rates are high and mass-mortality events of colonies, later on, more likely. Despite a higher frequency of pelagic metamorphosis, no SCWs were observed at average winter (22 °C) and cold-front (19 °C) conditions. Climate change may thus favor large-scale dispersal of competent pelagic polyps and further extensions of the leading range edge to subtropical and warm temperate regions where temperature conditions (ca. 22 °C) for propagule survival and settlement success are best. Introduction The environmental control of the dispersal potential of pelagic propagules plays a key role on the ecology of ben- thic marine invertebrates, since it may largely determine the dynamics of spatially structured populations and communi- ties at several diferent scales (e.g., Kinlan and Gaines 2003; Cowen et al. 2006). In this context, temperature is consid- ered a major environmental driver, predictably afecting the physiology of marine larvae (O’Connor et al. 2007). In gen- eral, higher temperatures tend to increase metabolic rate and shorten the pelagic larval duration, at the cost of increased mortality (e.g., Drent 2002; Bassim and Sammarco 2003; Randall and Szmant 2009; Kendall et al. 2013; Robitzch et al. 2016). Because the time larvae spend in the plankton may translate to dispersal potential, sea-surface warming in a global scenario of climate change may, other environ- mental conditions being unchanged, greatly decrease the overall dispersal potential and hence connectivity among benthic populations (O’Connor et al. 2007; Munday et al. 2009). However, the development pathways through early planktonic stages may greatly change under adverse envi- ronmental conditions, including temperature anomalies, ultimately afecting pelagic periods and transport distances. Still, besides dormancy in specifc stages of a few inverte- brate groups, such as copepods (Dahms 1995), hydrozoans (Piraino et al. 2004), and barnacles (Pineda et al. 2005), such efects are seldom reported. Sun corals Tubastraea spp. (T. tagusensis Wells, 1982 and T. coccinea Lesson, 1829 combined) are alien and inva- sive species along tropical and subtropical coastlines in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean (Fenner and Banks 2004; dos Santos et al. 2013). Native to the Indo-Pacifc, these azo- oxanthellate corals were frst reported at Bacia de Campos, RJ, Southeast Brazil in the late 1980s and have since then expanded to numerous sites along the Brazilian coast (over 3850 km; Creed et al. 2016; Soares et al. 2018), profoundly changing the structure of local benthic communities (dos Santos et al. 2013; Mizrahi et al. 2017; Silva et al. 2019) and Communicated by C. Voostra. Reviewed by M. Mies and N. Mieszkowska. * Andreia C. C. Barbosa deiabarbosa@usp.br 1 Center for Marine Biology, University of São Paulo (CEBIMar-USP), São Sebastião, Brazil 2 Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal 3 Oceanographic Institute, University of São Paulo (IO-USP), São Paulo, Brazil