Ocean warming is increasingly affecting marine ecosystems across the globe. Reef-building corals are particularly affected by warming, with mass bleaching events increasing in frequency and leading to widespread coral mortality. Yet, some corals can resist or recover from bleaching better than others. Such variability in thermal resilience could be critical to reef persistence; however, the scientific community lacks standardized diagnostic approaches to rapidly and comparatively assess coral thermal vulnerability prior to bleaching events. We present the Coral Bleaching Automated Stress System (CBASS) as a low-cost, open-source, field-portable experimental system for rapid empirical assessment of coral thermal thresholds using standardized temperature stress profiles and diagnostics. The CBASS consists of four or eight flow-through experimental aquaria with independent water masses, lighting, and individual automated temperature controls capable of delivering custom modulating thermal profiles. The CBASS is used to conduct daily thermal stress exposures that typically include 3-h temperature ramps to multiple target temperatures, a 3-h hold period at the target temperatures, and a 1-h ramp back down to ambient temperature, followed by an overnight recovery period. This mimics shallow water temperature profiles observed in coral reefs and prompts a rapid acute heat stress response that can serve as a diagnostic tool to identify putative thermotolerant corals for in-depth assessments of adaptation mechanisms, targeted conservation, and possible use in restoration efforts. The CBASS is deployable within hours and can assay up to 40 coral fragments/aquaria/day, enabling high-throughput, rapid determination of thermal thresholds for individual genotypes, populations, species, and sites using a standardized experimental framework.

中文翻译：

---

珊瑚白化自动应激系统 (CBASS)：一种低成本、便携式系统，用于对珊瑚热极限进行标准化实证评估

海洋变暖正日益影响全球海洋生态系统。珊瑚礁珊瑚尤其受到变暖的影响，大规模白化事件的频率增加，导致珊瑚广泛死亡。然而，一些珊瑚比其他珊瑚更能抵抗白化或从白化中恢复。这种热恢复能力的变化对于珊瑚礁的持续存在至关重要；然而，科学界缺乏标准化的诊断方法来在白化事件发生之前快速、比较地评估珊瑚的热脆弱性。我们推出的珊瑚白化自动压力系统（CBASS）是一种低成本、开源、现场便携式实验系统，可使用标准化温度压力曲线和诊断来快速对珊瑚热阈值进行实证评估。CBASS 由四个或八个流通式实验水族箱组成，具有独立的水团、照明和单独的自动温度控制装置，能够提供定制的调节热分布。CBASS 用于进行日常热应力暴露，通常包括 3 小时升温至多个目标温度、在目标温度保持 3 小时、1 小时降温至环境温度，然后过夜恢复期。这模仿了在珊瑚礁中观察到的浅水温度剖面，并引发快速的急性热应激反应，可以作为诊断工具来识别假定的耐热珊瑚，以深入评估适应机制、有针对性的保护以及在恢复工作中的可能使用。