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The extent to which populations persist under environmental stress depends on the reproductive output of individuals that survive the stress. In coral systems, corals bleach in response to stress from elevated water temperature. However, little is known of the extent to which thermal stress impairs the reproductive capacity of the survivors over the following years, limiting the capacity to predict how populations will persist in the Anthropocene.Using histology to quantify the abundance and size of oocytes and spermaries per polyp, we tested how bleaching impairs the reproductive response of the coral Pocillopora meandrina over two reproductive seasons following the 2015 mass bleaching event in the Hawaiian Islands.We found that smaller colonies not only had a greater probability of bleaching but also suffered greater reproductive impacts over a longer time. In contrast, larger colonies generated comparable reproductive output regardless of bleaching severity, although bleached colonies generated smaller oocytes the year after bleaching.These results show that reproductive impacts of bleaching are more complex and size‐specific than commonly assumed. Therefore, estimates of bleaching mortality may underestimate the true impact of thermal stress on populations, especially as populations lose larger individuals from repeated and co‐occurring stressors. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coral colonies regularly suffer tissue damage from natural and anthropogenic sources. The resultant wounds can decrease colony fitness and act as sources of infection or algal overgrowth. By systematically breaking branches on 54 Pocillopora meandrina colonies and following in situ tissue regeneration (April–August 2017), variation in the wound recovery process was investigated within colonies, among colonies, and across four sites on O'ahu, Hawai'i. Ninety-five percent of all wounds healed, with an average healing time of 42 days. Average healing time was not different between initial and subsequent wounds. The relative importance of intrinsic factors, extrinsic factors, and disturbance history for the wound repair process was examined. Previous colony stressors, i.e., percent live coral tissue and bleaching history, were not correlated with wound healing time. These results indicate that wound repair is a priority for P. meandrina. Colony size and depth were significantly correlated with wound healing time: larger colonies healed 14 days faster than smaller colonies, and deeper colonies healed 25 days slower than shallower colonies. These findings support the hypothesis that larger colonies have more energy available for tissue regeneration. The observation of longer healing times for deeper colonies is likely driven by extrinsic factors that vary with depth, including temperature, wave energy, and irradiance. Overall, we show that wound healing in P. meandrina is physiologically resilient to previous stressors, but is affected by both colony size and depth. Understanding drivers of variation in regenerative processes for corals is critical for predicting coral population recovery after disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]