ORCID Profile
0000-0002-4585-3045
Current Organisation
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
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Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology) | Ecological Impacts of Climate Change | Population, Ecological and Evolutionary Genetics | Genetics
Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change | Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Australia (excl. Social Impacts) | Marine Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity |
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 06-06-2022
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-1555992/V1
Abstract: Ocean warming is increasing the incidence, scale, and severity of global-scale coral bleaching and mortality, culminating in the third global coral bleaching event that occurred during record marine heatwaves of 2014-2017. While local effects of these events have been widely reported, the global implications remain unknown. Analysis of 15,066 reef surveys during 2014-2017 revealed that 80% of surveyed reefs experienced significant coral bleaching and 35% experienced significant coral mortality. The global extent of significant coral bleaching and mortality was assessed by extrapolating results from reef surveys using comprehensive remote-sensing data of regional heat stress. This model predicted that 51% of the world’s coral reefs suffered significant bleaching and 15% significant mortality, surpassing damage from any prior global bleaching event. These observations demonstrate that global warming’s widespread damage to coral reefs is accelerating and underscores the threat anthropogenic climate change poses for the irreversible transformation of these essential ecosystems.
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 05-01-2018
Abstract: Coral bleaching occurs when stressful conditions result in the expulsion of the algal partner from the coral. Before anthropogenic climate warming, such events were relatively rare, allowing for recovery of the reef between events. Hughes et al. looked at 100 reefs globally and found that the average interval between bleaching events is now less than half what it was before. Such narrow recovery windows do not allow for full recovery. Furthermore, warming events such as El Niño are warmer than previously, as are general ocean conditions. Such changes are likely to make it more and more difficult for reefs to recover between stressful events. Science , this issue p. 80
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-01-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41597-020-00793-8
Abstract: The discovery of multi-species synchronous spawning of scleractinian corals on the Great Barrier Reef in the 1980s stimulated an extraordinary effort to document spawning times in other parts of the globe. Unfortunately, most of these data remain unpublished which limits our understanding of regional and global reproductive patterns. The Coral Spawning Database (CSD) collates much of these disparate data into a single place. The CSD includes 6178 observations (3085 of which were unpublished) of the time or day of spawning for over 300 scleractinian species in 61 genera from 101 sites in the Indo-Pacific. The goal of the CSD is to provide open access to coral spawning data to accelerate our understanding of coral reproductive biology and to provide a baseline against which to evaluate any future changes in reproductive phenology.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2021
DOI: 10.1016/J.CUB.2021.03.028
Abstract: Coral reefs are the epitome of species ersity, yet the number of described scleractinian coral species, the framework-builders of coral reefs, remains moderate by comparison. DNA sequencing studies are rapidly challenging this notion by exposing a wealth of undescribed ersity, but the evolutionary and ecological significance of this ersity remains largely unclear. Here, we present an annotated genome for one of the most ubiquitous corals in the Indo-Pacific (Pachyseris speciosa) and uncover, through a comprehensive genomic and phenotypic assessment, that it comprises morphologically indistinguishable but ecologically ergent lineages. Demographic modeling based on whole-genome resequencing indicated that morphological crypsis (across micro- and macromorphological traits) was due to ancient morphological stasis rather than recent ergence. Although the lineages occur sympatrically across shallow and mesophotic habitats, extensive genotyping using a rapid molecular assay revealed differentiation of their ecological distributions. Leveraging "common garden" conditions facilitated by the overlapping distributions, we assessed physiological and quantitative skeletal traits and demonstrated concurrent phenotypic differentiation. Lastly, spawning observations of genotyped colonies highlighted the potential role of temporal reproductive isolation in the limited admixture, with consistent genomic signatures in genes related to morphogenesis and reproduction. Overall, our findings demonstrate the presence of ecologically and phenotypically ergent coral species without substantial morphological differentiation and provide new leads into the potential mechanisms facilitating such ergence. More broadly, they indicate that our current taxonomic framework for reef-building corals may be scratching the surface of the ecologically relevant ersity on coral reefs, consequently limiting our ability to protect or restore this ersity effectively.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 27-02-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.02.25.432972
Abstract: The unprecedented rate of environmental change in the Anthropocene poses evolutionary challenges for wild populations globally. Active human interventions are being increasingly considered to accelerate natural adaptive processes. Evolutionary models can evaluate how species may fare under future climate, elucidate which evolutionary processes are critical to rapid adaptation, and how active interventions may influence fitness trajectories of organisms. Here we use polygenic metapopulation adaptation models to quantify the relative importance (effect sizes) of different eco-evolutionary parameters on the rates of adaptation in wild populations i) without active interventions, and ii) under a subset of active interventions. We demonstrate that genetic ersity (heterozygosity, He), population connectivity and the effect size of additive genetic variance are the primary drivers of natural adaptation rates. We quantify the effect sizes of these parameters on population fitness across three proposed assisted evolution scenarios and identify critical thresholds for intervention effectiveness and implementation. Specifically, the interventions tested here were most effective at low levels of genetic ersity in target populations (He 0.2) and when timed during a cold-to-warm phase of an ENSO-like oscillation. Beneficial levels of connectivity were highly dependent on desired outcomes for the meta-population. We also present a global meta-analysis of genetic ersity in tropical reef-building corals as a case study of how thresholds derived from evolutionary models can be used to guide decision making by managers. We find genetic ersity to be highly variable by coral taxon and region, highlighting how thresholds from evolutionary models can be used in conjunction with empirical data to assess intervention needs and priorities. Finally, we highlight the critical knowledge and data gaps to produce the next suite of applied models for conservation management decision-support.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-01-2021
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-2017
DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE3374
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-05-2022
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.13549
Abstract: Revealing how ersity varies across the depth gradient is key for understanding the role of mesophotic coral ecosystems in the functioning of coral reefs. We quantitatively examined how alpha and beta generic ersity of scleractinian coral assemblages vary across a wide depth gradient for coral reefs. Sixteen sites in eight islands of three archipelagos in French Polynesia. We studied generic ersity patterns of scleractinian corals, as derived from the analysis of photo‐quadrats, across the seafloor from shallow to lower mesophotic depths (6–120 m) and on a wide geographic scale. Our s ling considered quantitative coral cover to explore the patterns of alpha and beta components of ersity across depth and horizontal space. We show that in French Polynesia, mesophotic coral ecosystems host higher alpha and beta generic ersity than shallow reefs despite decreasing coral cover with depth. The variation of coral genus richness across the depth gradient is mainly driven by a mid‐domain effect with a peak at 40 m depth. At the same time, we found that the differences in coral genera across islands (spatial beta‐ ersity) increased steadily along the depth gradient. Our findings report the first quantitative results of coral cover and ersity from mesophotic coral ecosystems in French Polynesia and also present one of the few existing studies to examine the broad breadth of the mesophotic depth gradient. We demonstrate that mesophotic depths can host unexpectedly high generic richness of scleractinian coral assemblages. At the same time, we showed that increasing depth increases the differences in generic ersity composition across islands, whereas shallow reefs are similar in between. While a single island could conserve shallow regional bio ersity, mesophotic depths containing the richest ersity require site‐specific measures, suggesting that considering these mesophotic depths in conservation is necessary to maintain regional ersity.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 11-2021
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.210139
Abstract: Climate change and consequent coral bleaching are causing the disappearance of reef-building corals worldwide. While bleaching episodes significantly impact shallow waters, little is known about their impact on mesophotic coral communities. We studied the prevalence of coral bleaching two to three months after a heat stress event, along an extreme depth range from 6 to 90 m in French Polynesia. Bayesian modelling showed a decreasing probability of bleaching of all coral genera over depth, with little to no bleaching observed at lower mesophotic depths (greater than or equal to 60 m). We found that depth-generalist corals benefit more from increasing depth than depth-specialists (corals with a narrow depth range). Our data suggest that the reduced prevalence of bleaching with depth, especially from shallow to upper mesophotic depths (40 m), had a stronger relation with the light-irradiance attenuation than temperature. While acknowledging the geographical and temporal variability of the role of mesophotic reefs as spatial refuges during thermal stress, we ought to understand why coral bleaching reduces with depth. Future studies should consider repeated monitoring and detailed ecophysiological and environmental data. Our study demonstrated how increasing depth may offer a level of protection and that lower mesophotic communities could escape the impacts of a thermal bleaching event.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2023
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 05-09-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.09.04.260208
Abstract: Coral reefs are the epitome of species ersity, yet the number of described scleractinian coral species, the framework-builders of coral reefs, remains moderate by comparison. DNA sequencing studies are rapidly challenging this notion by exposing a wealth of undescribed ersity, but the evolutionary and ecological significance of this ersity remains largely unclear. Here, we present an annotated genome for one of the most ubiquitous corals in the Indo-Pacific ( Pachyseris speciosa ), and uncover through a comprehensive genomic and phenotypic assessment that it comprises morphologically indistinguishable, but ecologically ergent cryptic lineages. Demographic modelling based on whole-genome resequencing disproved that morphological crypsis was due to recent ergence, and instead indicated ancient morphological stasis. Although the lineages occur sympatrically across shallow and mesophotic habitats, extensive genotyping using a rapid diagnostic assay revealed differentiation of their ecological distributions. Leveraging “common garden” conditions facilitated by the overlapping distributions, we assessed physiological and quantitative skeletal traits and demonstrated concurrent phenotypic differentiation. Lastly, spawning observations of genotyped colonies highlighted the potential role of temporal reproductive isolation in the limited admixture, with consistent genomic signatures in genes related to morphogenesis and reproduction. Overall, our findings demonstrate how ecologically and phenotypically ergent coral species can evolve despite morphological stasis, and provide new leads into the potential mechanisms facilitating such ergence in sympatry. More broadly, they indicate that our current taxonomic framework for reef-building corals may be scratching the surface of the ecologically relevant ersity on coral reefs, consequently limiting our ability to protect or restore this ersity effectively.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 30-08-2017
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-017-10560-2
Abstract: Processes of cnidarian evolution, including hybridization and phenotypic plasticity, have complicated the clear diagnosis of species boundaries within the phylum. Pocillopora acuta , a species of scleractinian coral that was recently split from the widespread Pocillopora damicornis species complex, occurs in at least two distinct morphs on the Great Barrier Reef. Contrasting morphology combined with evidence of differential bleaching thresholds among sympatrically distributed colonies suggest that the taxonomy of this recently described species is not fully resolved and may represent its own species complex. To examine the basis of sympatric differentiation between the two morphs, we combined analyses of micro- and macro-skeletal morphology with genome wide sequencing of the coral host, as well as ITS2 genotyping of the associated Symbiodinium communities. We found consistent differences between morphs on both the macro- and micro-skeletal scale. In addition, we identified 18 candidate functional genes that relate to skeletal formation and morphology that may explain how the two morphs regulate growth to achieve their distinct growth forms. With inconclusive results in endosymbiotic algal community ersity between the two morphs, we propose that colony morphology may be linked to bleaching susceptibility. We conclude that cryptic speciation may be in the early stages within the species P. acuta .
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-07-2022
DOI: 10.1111/EVA.13435
Abstract: Genomic studies are uncovering extensive cryptic ersity within reef‐building corals, suggesting that evolutionarily and ecologically relevant ersity is highly underestimated in the very organisms that structure coral reefs. Furthermore, endosymbiotic algae within coral host species can confer adaptive responses to environmental stress and may represent additional axes of coral genetic variation that are not constrained by taxonomic ergence of the cnidarian host. Here, we examine genetic variation in a common and widespread, reef‐building coral, Acropora tenuis , and its associated endosymbiotic algae along the entire expanse of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). We use SNPs derived from genome‐wide sequencing to characterize the cnidarian coral host and organelles from zooxanthellate endosymbionts (genus Cladocopium ). We discover three distinct and sympatric genetic clusters of coral hosts, whose distributions appear associated with latitude and inshore–offshore reef position. Demographic modelling suggests that the ergence history of the three distinct host taxa ranges from 0.5 to 1.5 million years ago, preceding the GBR's formation, and has been characterized by low‐to‐moderate ongoing inter‐taxon gene flow, consistent with occasional hybridization and introgression typifying coral evolution. Despite this differentiation in the cnidarian host, A. tenuis taxa share a common symbiont pool, dominated by the genus Cladocopium (Clade C). Cladocopium plastid ersity is not strongly associated with host identity but varies with reef location relative to shore: inshore colonies contain lower symbiont ersity on average but have greater differences between colonies as compared with symbiont communities from offshore colonies. Spatial genetic patterns of symbiont communities could reflect local selective pressures maintaining coral holobiont differentiation across an inshore–offshore environmental gradient. The strong influence of environment (but not host identity) on symbiont community composition supports the notion that symbiont community composition responds to habitat and may assist in the adaptation of corals to future environmental change.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-08-2018
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-018-29608-Y
Abstract: Increases in the frequency of perturbations that drive coral community structure, such as severe thermal anomalies and high intensity storms, highlight the need to understand how coral communities recover following multiple disturbances. We describe the dynamics of cover and assemblage composition of corals on exposed inshore reefs in the Palm Islands, central Great Barrier Reef, over 19 years encapsulating major disturbance events such as the severe bleaching event in 1998 and Cyclone Yasi in 2011, along with other minor storm and heat stress events. Over this time, 47.8% of hard coral cover was lost, with a concomitant shift in coral assemblage composition due to taxon-specific rates of mortality during the disturbances, and asymmetric recovery in the aftermath thereof. High recruitment rates of some broadcast-spawning corals, particularly corymbose Acropora spp., even in the absence of adult colonies, indicate that a strong external larval supply replenished the stocks. Conversely, the time required for recovery of slow-growing coral morphologies and life histories was longer than the recurrence times of major disturbances. With interludes between bleaching and cyclones predicted to decrease, the probability of another severe disturbance event before coral cover and assemblage composition approximates historical levels suggests that reefs will continue to erode.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-12-2018
Start Date: 2020
End Date: 01-2023
Amount: $416,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
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