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Tephra-mediated manganese cycling shapes coral responses to coastal sedimentation

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Abstract

Terrestrial runoff from tropical volcanic islands impacts coral reefs by increasing turbidity and sedimentation. During explosive volcanic eruptions, large amounts of fragmented volcanogenic rock (tephra) are deposited, exacerbating sediment runoff for long periods of time. Nevertheless, tephra is an important, yet underestimated, source of the essential trace metal manganese (Mn), which promotes coral photosynthesis. Here, we show Mn leached from pristine and remobilised tephra increases resilience to sedimentation stress. Using coral culture experiments, microcolonies of Stylophora pistillata exposed to four tephra samples all showed rapid and sustained increases in photosynthetic efficiency (ΦPSII, rETR, Pn and Pgross), even under reduced light conditions. Photosynthetic efficiency is logarithmically correlated to seawater Mn concentration, with large increases at values < 3 µg Mn L− 1, and negligible changes at values > 10 µg Mn L− 1. Tephra exposure has a crucial role in coastal Mn cycling and potentially benefits stressed corals following environmental disturbances.

Data availability

The original data that support the findings of this study are available in Mendeley Data with the identifier doi:10.17632/np9bhzfp56.3.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Cécile Rottier for her laboratory assistance during FFs time at the Centre Scientifique de Monaco (Monaco). Additionally, we thank Martín Miranda-Muruzábal and Antoine De Haller at the University of Geneva for their help and assistance for EPMA and XRF analysis, respectively. We also would like to acknowledge Leanka Henry (National Emergency Management Organisation, St. Vincent) for her help on St. Vincent and Professor Richard Robertson (UWI Seismic Research Centre) for providing the volcanic ash samples (T4) used in the coral culture experiments. At the University of Geneva, the authors thank Enzo-Enrico Cacciatore and Charline Lormand for their help in SEM-EDX data evaluation.

Funding

FF and TS acknowledge funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF; Project no. PCEFP2_194204). CFP would like to acknowledge funding from CORDAP (Coral Research and Development Accelerate Platform) on the project: “Super supplement: boosting coral resilience through nutritional supplements”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Geneva, Genève, Switzerland

    Frank Förster, Allan Fries & Tom E. Sheldrake

  2. Ecophysiology Team, Centre Scientifique de Monaco, Monaco, Monaco

    Christine Ferrier-Pagès

  3. Seismic Research Centre, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

    Erouscilla Joseph

Authors

  1. Frank Förster
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  2. Christine Ferrier-Pagès
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  3. Allan Fries
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  4. Erouscilla Joseph
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  5. Tom E. Sheldrake
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Contributions

FF conducted the experiments, contributed to data acquisition and interpretation, ideas conceptualization, created the figures, and drafted the manuscript. CFP contributed to supervision at the CSM, provided laboratory resources, data investigation and editing. AF contributed to particle size data acquisition and editing. EJ provided feedback on the manuscript and was crucial for the fieldwork on St. Vincent. TS contributed to supervision, study design, idea conceptualization, writing, results analysis and funding acquisition. All authors contributed meaningfully to the manuscript.

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Correspondence to
Frank Förster.

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Förster, F., Ferrier-Pagès, C., Fries, A. et al. Tephra-mediated manganese cycling shapes coral responses to coastal sedimentation.
Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38388-9

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