The effect of warming on seagrass wasting disease depends on host genotypic identity and diversity.

Temperature increases due to climate change have affected the distribution and severity of diseases in natural systems, causing outbreaks that can destroy host populations. Host identity, diversity, and the associated microbiome can affect host responses to both infection and temperature, but little is known about how they could function as important mediators of disease in altered thermal environments. We conducted an 8-week warming experiment to test the independent and interactive effects of warming, host genotypic identity, and host genotypic diversity on the prevalence and intensity of infections of seagrass (Zostera marina) by the wasting disease parasite (Labyrinthula zosterae). At elevated temperatures, we found that genotypically diverse host assemblages had reduced infection intensity, but not reduced prevalence, relative to less diverse assemblages. This dilution effect on parasite intensity was the result of both host composition effects as well as emergent properties of biodiversity. In contrast with the benefits of genotypic diversity under warming, diversity actually increased parasite intensity slightly in ambient temperatures. We found mixed support for the hypothesis that a growth-defense trade-off contributed to elevated disease intensity under warming. Changes in the abundance (but not composition) of a few taxa in the host microbiome were correlated with genotype-specific responses to wasting disease infections under warming, consistent with the emerging evidence linking changes in the host microbiome to the outcome of host-parasite interactions. This work emphasizes the context dependence of biodiversity-disease relationships and highlights the potential importance of interactions among biodiversity loss, climate change, and disease outbreaks in a key foundation species.

Genetic diversity of seagrass seeds influences seedling morphology and biomass.

Genetic diversity can influence ecological processes throughout ontogeny, yet whether diversity at early life history stages is important in long-lived taxa with overlapping generations is unclear. Seagrass systems provide some of the best evidence for the ecological effects of genetic diversity among adult shoots, but we do not know if the genetic diversity of seeds and seedlings also influences seagrass ecology. We tested the effects of seagrass (Zostera marina) seed diversity and relatedness on germination success, seedling morphology, and seedling production by comparing experimental assemblages of seeds collected from single reproductive shoots ("monocultures") to assemblages of seeds collected from multiple reproductive shoots ("polycultures"). There was no difference in seedling emergence, yet seedlings from polycultures had larger shoots above and below ground than seedlings from monocultures at the end of the 1-yr experiment. Genetic relatedness of the seedlings predicted some aspects of shoot morphology, with more leaves and longer roots and shoots at intermediate levels of relatedness, regardless of seed diversity. Our results suggest that studies of only adult stages may underestimate the importance of genetic diversity if the benefits at early life history stages continue to accrue throughout the life cycle.