ORCID Profile
0000-0002-6297-9053
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Environmental Science and Management | Conservation and Biodiversity | Natural Resource Management | Geomatic Engineering | Photogrammetry And Remote Sensing | Environmental Management And Rehabilitation | Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology) | Image Processing | Ecological Impacts of Climate Change | Ecological Applications | Environmental Engineering Modelling | Stochastic Analysis And Modelling | Ecosystem Function | Environmental Management | Landscape Ecology | Marine And Estuarine Ecology (Incl. Marine Ichthyology) | Conservation And Biodiversity |
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Marine Environments | Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Coastal and Estuarine Environments | Marine Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity | Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change | Integrated (ecosystem) assessment and management | Estuarine and lagoon areas | Coastal and Estuarine Land Management | Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Forest and Woodlands Environments | Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Australia (excl. Social Impacts) | Climate Change Mitigation Strategies | Marine protected areas | Integrated (ecosystem) assessment and management | Natural Hazards in Coastal and Estuarine Environments | Rehabilitation of Degraded Coastal and Estuarine Environments | Global climate change adaptation measures
Related Links
Publications
Biotic and multi-scale abiotic controls of habitat quality: their effect on coral-reef fishes
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 15-09-2011
DOI: 10.3354/MEPS09280
The Future of Coral Reefs Subject to Rapid Climate Change: Lessons from Natural Extreme Environments
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 02-02-2018
Asymmetric competition prevents the outbreak of an opportunistic species after coral reef degradation
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-01-2016
DOI: 10.1007/S00442-015-3541-X
Abstract: Disturbance releases space and allows the growth of opportunistic species, excluded by the old stands, with a potential to alter community dynamics. In coral reefs, abundances of fast-growing, and disturbance-tolerant sponges are expected to increase and dominate as space becomes available following acute coral mortality events. Yet, an increase in abundance of these opportunistic species has been reported in only a few studies, suggesting certain mechanisms may be acting to regulate sponge populations. To gain insights into mechanisms of population control, we simulated the dynamics of the common reef-excavating sponge Cliona tenuis in the Caribbean using an in idual-based model. An orthogonal hypothesis testing approach was used, where four candidate mechanisms-algal competition, stock-recruitment limitation, whole and partial mortality-were incorporated sequentially into the model and the results were tested against independent field observations taken over a decade in Belize, Central America. We found that releasing space after coral mortality can promote C. tenuis outbreaks, but such outbreaks can be curtailed by macroalgal competition. The asymmetrical competitive superiority of macroalgae, given by their capacity to pre-empt space and outcompete with the sponge in a size-dependant fashion, supports their capacity to steal the opportunity from other opportunists. While multiple system stages can be expected in coral reefs following intense perturbation macroalgae may prevent the growth of other space-occupiers, such as bioeroding sponges, under low grazing pressure.
Factors affecting tolerance to herbivory in a calcifying alga on coral reefs
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-2017
Life-history traits of a common Caribbean coral-excavating sponge, Cliona tenuis (Porifera: Hadromerida)
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-2013
Global disparity in the ecological benefits of reducing carbon emissions for coral reefs
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-11-2014
DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2439
Communicating physics-based wave model predictions of coral reefs using Bayesian belief networks
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2018
New interventions are needed to save coral reefs
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-09-2017
Widespread prevalence of cryptic Symbiodinium D in the key Caribbean reef builder, Orbicella annularis
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-02-2015
Incorporating larval dispersal into MPA design for both conservation and fisheries
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-03-2017
DOI: 10.1002/EAP.1495
Abstract: Larval dispersal by ocean currents is a critical component of systematic marine protected area (MPA) design. However, there is a lack of quantitative methods to incorporate larval dispersal in support of increasingly erse management objectives, including local population persistence under multiple types of threats (primarily focused on larval retention within and dispersal between protected locations) and benefits to unprotected populations and fisheries (primarily focused on larval export from protected locations to fishing grounds). Here, we present a flexible MPA design approach that can reconcile multiple such potentially conflicting management objectives by balancing various associated treatments of larval dispersal information. We demonstrate our approach based on alternative dispersal patterns, combinations of threats to populations, management objectives, and two different optimization strategies (site vs. network-based). Our outcomes highlight a consistently high effectiveness in selecting priority locations that are self-replenishing, inter-connected, and/or important larval sources. We find that the opportunity to balance these three dispersal attributes flexibly can help not only to prevent meta-population collapse, but also to ensure effective fisheries recovery, with average increases in the number of recruits at fishing grounds at least two times higher than achieved by standard habitat-based or ad-hoc MPA designs. Future applications of our MPA design approach should therefore be encouraged, specifically where management tools other than MPAs are not feasible.
Revisiting the functional roles of the surgeonfish Acanthurus nigrofuscus and Ctenochaetus striatus
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-07-2012
Combined direct and indirect impacts of warming on the productivity of coral reef fishes
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2022
DOI: 10.1002/ECS2.4108
Abstract: Ocean warming is already causing widespread changes to coral reef ecosystems worldwide. Warming is having direct and indirect impacts on food webs, but their interaction is unclear. Warming directly affects fishes and invertebrates by increasing their metabolic rate, resulting in changes to demographic processes such as growth rates. Indirect effects involve a loss of reef habitat quality as coral bleaching reduces the availability of refuges. We used a size‐structured dynamic energy budget model of fishes and invertebrates, coupled to a spatially explicit model of coral and algae, to explore potential changes to ecosystem function with warming. Modeled changes in biomass for +3°C of warming were found to be controlled predominantly by the direct effects of warming on growth rates, rather than by indirect effects via the changed coral habitat. Crucially for fisheries, the biomass of predators decreased by at least 50% with +3°C of warming, and productivity of predators decreased by at least 60%.
Marine reserves, fisheries ban, and 20 years of positive change in a coral reef ecosystem
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-04-2021
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.13738
Abstract: By 2004, Belize was exhibiting classic fishing down of the food web. Groupers (Serranidae) and snappers (Lutjanidae) were scarce and fisheries turned to parrotfishes (Scarinae), leading to a 41% decline in their biomass. Several policies were enacted in 2009–2010, including a moratorium on fishing parrotfish and a new marine park with no‐take areas. Using a 20‐year time series on reef fish and benthos, we evaluated the impact of these policies approximately 10 years after their implementation. Establishment of the Southwater Caye Marine Reserve led to a recovery of snapper at 2 out of 3 sites, but there was no evidence of recovery outside the reserve. Snapper populations in an older reserve continued to increase, implying that at least 9 years is required for their recovery. Despite concerns over the feasibility of banning parrotfish harvest once it has become a dominant fin fishery, parrotfishes returned and exceeded biomass levels prior to the fishery. The majority of these changes involved an increase in parrotfish density species composition and adult body size generally exhibited little change. Recovery occurred equally well in reserves and areas open to other forms of fishing, implying strong compliance. Temporal trends in parrotfish grazing intensity were strongly negatively associated with the cover of macroalgae, which by 2018 had fallen to the lowest levels observed since measurements began in 1998. Coral populations remained resilient and continued to exhibit periods of net recovery after disturbance. We found that a moratorium on parrotfish harvesting is feasible and appears to help constrain macroalgae, which can otherwise impede coral resilience.
Crucial knowledge gaps in current understanding of climate change impacts on coral reef fishes
Publisher: The Company of Biologists
Date: 15-03-2010
DOI: 10.1242/JEB.037895
Abstract: Expert opinion was canvassed to identify crucial knowledge gaps in current understanding of climate change impacts on coral reef fishes. Scientists that had published three or more papers on the effects of climate and environmental factors on reef fishes were invited to submit five questions that, if addressed, would improve our understanding of climate change effects on coral reef fishes. Thirty-three scientists provided 155 questions, and 32 scientists scored these questions in terms of: (i) identifying a knowledge gap, (ii) achievability, (iii) applicability to a broad spectrum of species and reef habitats, and (iv) priority. Forty-two per cent of the questions related to habitat associations and community dynamics of fish, reflecting the established effects and immediate concern relating to climate-induced coral loss and habitat degradation. However, there were also questions on fish demographics, physiology, behaviour and management, all of which could be potentially affected by climate change. Irrespective of their in idual expertise and background, scientists scored questions from different topics similarly, suggesting limited bias and recognition of a need for greater interdisciplinary and collaborative research. Presented here are the 53 highest-scoring unique questions. These questions should act as a guide for future research, providing a basis for better assessment and management of climate change impacts on coral reefs and associated fish communities.
Multi-site evaluation of IKONOS data for classification of tropical coral reef environments
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2003
Integrating environmental variability to broaden the research on coral responses to future ocean conditions
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-09-2021
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.15840
Abstract: Our understanding of the response of reef‐building corals to changes in their physical environment is largely based on laboratory experiments, analysis of long‐term field data, and model projections. Experimental data provide unique insights into how organisms respond to variation of environmental drivers. However, an assessment of how well experimental conditions cover the breadth of environmental conditions and variability where corals live successfully is missing. Here, we compiled and analyzed a globally distributed dataset of in‐situ seasonal and diurnal variability of key environmental drivers (temperature, p CO 2 , and O 2 ) critical for the growth and livelihood of reef‐building corals. Using a meta‐analysis approach, we compared the variability of environmental conditions assayed in coral experimental studies to current and projected conditions in their natural habitats. We found that annual temperature profiles projected for the end of the 21st century were characterized by distributional shifts in temperatures with warmer winters and longer warm periods in the summer, not just peak temperatures. Furthermore, short‐term hourly fluctuations of temperature and p CO 2 may regularly expose corals to conditions beyond the projected average increases for the end of the 21st century. Coral reef sites varied in the degree of coupling between temperature, p CO 2 , and dissolved O 2 , which warrants site‐specific, differentiated experimental approaches depending on the local hydrography and influence of biological processes on the carbonate system and O 2 availability. Our analysis highlights that a large portion of the natural environmental variability at short and long timescales is underexplored in experimental designs, which may provide a path to extend our understanding on the response of corals to global climate change.
The dynamics of architectural complexity on coral reefs under climate change
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-09-2014
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.12698
Abstract: One striking feature of coral reef ecosystems is the complex benthic architecture which supports erse and abundant fauna, particularly of reef fish. Reef‐building corals are in decline worldwide, with a corresponding loss of live coral cover resulting in a loss of architectural complexity. Understanding the dynamics of the reef architecture is therefore important to envision the ability of corals to maintain functional habitats in an era of climate change. Here, we develop a mechanistic model of reef topographical complexity for contemporary Caribbean reefs. The model describes the dynamics of corals and other benthic taxa under climate‐driven disturbances (hurricanes and coral bleaching). Corals have a simplified shape with explicit diameter and height, allowing species‐specific calculation of their colony surface and volume. Growth and the mechanical (hurricanes) and biological erosion (parrotfish) of carbonate skeletons are important in driving the pace of extension/reduction in the upper reef surface, the net outcome being quantified by a simple surface roughness index (reef rugosity). The model accurately simulated the decadal changes of coral cover observed in Cozumel (Mexico) between 1984 and 2008, and provided a realistic hindcast of coral colony‐scale (1–10 m) changing rugosity over the same period. We then projected future changes of Caribbean reef rugosity in response to global warming. Under severe and frequent thermal stress, the model predicted a dramatic loss of rugosity over the next two or three decades. Critically, reefs with managed parrotfish populations were able to delay the general loss of architectural complexity, as the benefits of grazing in maintaining living coral outweighed the bioerosion of dead coral skeletons. Overall, this model provides the first explicit projections of reef rugosity in a warming climate, and highlights the need of combining local (protecting and restoring high grazing) to global (mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions) interventions for the persistence of functional reef habitats.
Interdependency of tropical marine ecosystems in response to climate change
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-06-2014
DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2274
Coastal retreat and improved water quality mitigate losses of seagrass from sea level rise
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-05-2013
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.12218
Abstract: The distribution and abundance of seagrass ecosystems could change significantly over the coming century due to sea level rise (SLR). Coastal managers require mechanistic understanding of the processes affecting seagrass response to SLR to maximize their conservation and associated provision of ecosystem services. In Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia, vast seagrass meadows supporting populations of sea turtles and dugongs are juxtaposed with the multiple stressors associated with a large and rapidly expanding human population. Here, the interactive effects of predicted SLR, changes in water clarity, and land use on future distributions of seagrass in Moreton Bay were quantified. A habitat distribution model of present day seagrass in relation to benthic irradiance and wave height was developed which correctly classified habitats in 83% of cases. Spatial predictions of seagrass and presence derived from the model and bathymetric data were used to initiate a SLR inundation model. Bathymetry was iteratively modified based on SLR and sedimentary accretion in seagrass to simulate potential seagrass habitat at 10 year time steps until 2100. The area of seagrass habitat was predicted to decline by 17% by 2100 under a scenario of SLR of 1.1 m. A scenario including the removal of impervious surfaces, such as roads and houses, from newly inundated regions, demonstrated that managed retreat of the shoreline could potentially reduce the overall decline in seagrass habitat to just 5%. The predicted reduction in area of seagrass habitat could be offset by an improvement in water clarity of 30%. Greater improvements in water clarity would be necessary for larger magnitudes of SLR. Management to improve water quality will provide present and future benefits to seagrasses under climate change and should be a priority for managers seeking to compensate for the effects of global change on these valuable habitats.
Response to Bode and colleagues: ‘Resilient reefs may exist, but can larval dispersal models find them?’
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 22-08-2018
The tropicalization of temperate marine ecosystems: climate-mediated changes in herbivory and community phase shifts
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 22-08-2014
Abstract: Climate-driven changes in biotic interactions can profoundly alter ecological communities, particularly when they impact foundation species. In marine systems, changes in herbivory and the consequent loss of dominant habitat forming species can result in dramatic community phase shifts, such as from coral to macroalgal dominance when tropical fish herbivory decreases, and from algal forests to ‘barrens’ when temperate urchin grazing increases. Here, we propose a novel phase-shift away from macroalgal dominance caused by tropical herbivores extending their range into temperate regions. We argue that this phase shift is facilitated by poleward-flowing boundary currents that are creating ocean warming hotspots around the globe, enabling the range expansion of tropical species and increasing their grazing rates in temperate areas. Overgrazing of temperate macroalgae by tropical herbivorous fishes has already occurred in Japan and the Mediterranean. Emerging evidence suggests similar phenomena are occurring in other temperate regions, with increasing occurrence of tropical fishes on temperate reefs.
Hierarchical spatial patterns in Caribbean reef benthic assemblages
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-04-2015
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.12509
Minimizing the Short‐Term Impacts of Marine Reserves on Fisheries While Meeting Long‐Term Goals for Recovery
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-08-2014
DOI: 10.1111/CONL.12124
Sensitivity of coral recruitment to subtle shifts in early community succession
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2017
DOI: 10.1002/ECY.1663
Abstract: Community succession following disturbance depends on positive and negative interactions, the strength of which change along environmental gradients. To investigate how early succession affects coral reef recovery, we conducted an 18-month experiment in Palau, using recruitment tiles and herbivore exclusion cages. One set of reefs has higher wave exposure and had previously undergone a phase shift to macroalgae following a major typhoon, whereas the other set of reefs have lower wave exposure and did not undergo a macroalgal phase shift. Similar successional trajectories were observed at all sites when herbivores were excluded: turf algae dominated early succession, followed by shifts to foliose macroalgae and heterotrophic invertebrates. However, trajectories differed in the presence of herbivores. At low wave exposure reefs, herbivores promoted coralline algae and limited turf and encrusting fleshy algae in crevice microhabitats, facilitating optimal coral recruitment. Under medium wave exposure, relatively higher but still low coverage of turf and encrusting fleshy algae (15-25%) found in crevice microhabitats inhibited coral recruitment, persisting throughout multiple recruitment events. Our results indicate that altered interaction strength in different wave environments following disturbance can drive subtle changes in early succession that cascade to alter secondary succession to coral recruitment and system recovery.
Marine Reserve Targets to Sustain and Rebuild Unregulated Fisheries
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 05-01-2017
Resilience metrics to inform ecosystem management under global change with application to coral reefs
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-04-2015
Environmental and Sensor Limitations in Optical Remote Sensing of Coral Reefs: Implications for Monitoring and Sensor Design
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 23-01-2012
DOI: 10.3390/RS4010271
Reserve Sizes Needed to Protect Coral Reef Fishes
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-10-2018
DOI: 10.1111/CONL.12415
Trade-offs between fisheries and the conservation of ecosystem function are defined by management strategy
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-2014
DOI: 10.1890/130296
Global inequities between polluters and the polluted: climate change impacts on coral reefs
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 31-07-2015
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.13015
Abstract: For many ecosystem services, it remains uncertain whether the impacts of climate change will be mostly negative or positive and how these changes will be geographically distributed. These unknowns h er the identification of regional winners and losers, which can influence debate over climate policy. Here, we use coral reefs to explore the spatial variability of climate stress by modelling the ecological impacts of rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification, two important coral stressors associated with increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We then combine these results with national per capita emissions to quantify inequities arising from the distribution of cause (CO2 emissions) and effect (stress upon reefs) among coral reef countries. We find pollution and coral stress are spatially decoupled, creating substantial inequity of impacts as a function of emissions. We then consider the implications of such inequity for international climate policy. Targets for GHG reductions are likely to be tied to a country's emissions. Yet within a given level of GHG emissions, our analysis reveals that some countries experience relatively high levels of impact and will likely experience greater financial cost in terms of lost ecosystem productivity and more extensive adaptation measures. We suggest countries so disadvantaged be given access to international adaptation funds proportionate with impacts to their ecosystem. We raise the idea that funds could be more equitably allocated by formally including a metric of equity within a vulnerability framework.
Symbiodinium biogeography tracks environmental patterns rather than host genetics in a key Caribbean reef-builder, Orbicella annularis
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 16-11-2016
Abstract: The physiological performance of a reef-building coral is a combined outcome of both the coral host and its algal endosymbionts, Symbiodinium . While Orbicella annularis —a dominant reef-building coral in the Wider Caribbean—is known to be a flexible host in terms of the ersity of Symbiodinium types it can associate with, it is uncertain how this ersity varies across the Caribbean, and whether spatial variability in the symbiont community is related to either O. annularis genotype or environment. Here, we target the Symbiodinium -ITS2 gene to characterize and map dominant Symbiodinium hosted by O. annularis at an unprecedented spatial scale. We reveal northwest–southeast partitioning across the Caribbean, both in terms of the dominant symbiont taxa hosted and in assemblage ersity. Multivariate regression analyses incorporating a suite of environmental and genetic factors reveal that observed spatial patterns are predominantly explained by chronic thermal stress (summer temperatures) and are unrelated to host genotype. Furthermore, we were able to associate the presence of specific Symbiodinium types with local environmental drivers (for ex le, Symbiodinium C7 with areas experiencing cooler summers, B1j with nutrient loading and B17 with turbidity), associations that have not previously been described.
Exposure-driven macroalgal phase shift following catastrophic disturbance on coral reefs
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-05-2015
Important ecosystem function, low redundancy and high vulnerability: The trifecta argument for protecting the Great Barrier Reef's tabular Acropora
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2021
DOI: 10.1111/CONL.12817
Abstract: Identifying organisms that play an important role in maintaining ecosystem function is a key aspect of resilience‐based management. For Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR), we found that the recovery ability of shallow exposed fore‐reefs is more than 14 times higher when tabular Acropora are present. The disproportionate role that tabular Acropora play appears to be driven by a combination of traits including high recruitment, high growth rate and, importantly, large maximum colony sizes. Despite this key role, tabular Acropora are highly sensitive to most pressures. We compile evidence suggesting that if tabular corals were to decline or disappear on the GBR, the potential for reef recovery on exposed fore‐reefs would be considerably slowed. We then consider the merits of placing special emphasis on the protection of tabular Acropora within the management of the GBR. Importantly, we recognise that an analysis of costs and benefits of such recognition is vital before any change is implemented. Actions might include targeted crown‐of‐thorns starfish control, anchoring restrictions and protection for tabular corals on reefs identified as essential for their larval dispersal. In addition, targeted communications about the critical importance of these highly recognisable corals may boost community support and participation in their protection.
Vertical accretion and carbon burial rates in subtropical seagrass meadows increased following anthropogenic pressure from European colonisation
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2018
Anticipative management for coral reef ecosystem services in the 21st century
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-10-2014
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.12725
Abstract: Under projections of global climate change and other stressors, significant changes in the ecology, structure and function of coral reefs are predicted. Current management strategies tend to look to the past to set goals, focusing on halting declines and restoring baseline conditions. Here, we explore a complementary approach to decision making that is based on the anticipation of future changes in ecosystem state, function and services. Reviewing the existing literature and utilizing a scenario planning approach, we explore how the structure of coral reef communities might change in the future in response to global climate change and overfishing. We incorporate uncertainties in our predictions by considering heterogeneity in reef types in relation to structural complexity and primary productivity. We examine 14 ecosystem services provided by reefs, and rate their sensitivity to a range of future scenarios and management options. Our predictions suggest that the efficacy of management is highly dependent on biophysical characteristics and reef state. Reserves are currently widely used and are predicted to remain effective for reefs with high structural complexity. However, when complexity is lost, maximizing service provision requires a broader portfolio of management approaches, including the provision of artificial complexity, coral restoration, fish aggregation devices and herbivore management. Increased use of such management tools will require capacity building and technique refinement and we therefore conclude that ersification of our management toolbox should be considered urgently to prepare for the challenges of managing reefs into the 21st century.
Size matters in competition between corals and macroalgae
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 25-10-2012
DOI: 10.3354/MEPS09953
Asymmetric dispersal is a critical element of concordance between biophysical dispersal models and spatial genetic structure in Great Barrier Reef corals
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-07-2019
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.12969
Phase shift facilitation following cyclone disturbance on coral reefs
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-03-2015
DOI: 10.1007/S00442-015-3282-X
Abstract: While positive interactions have been observed to influence patterns of recruitment and succession in marine and terrestrial plant communities, the role of facilitation in macroalgal phase shifts is relatively unknown. In December 2012, typhoon Bopha caused catastrophic losses of corals on the eastern reefs of Palau. Within weeks of the typhoon, an ephemeral bloom of monospecific macroalgae (Liagora sp.) was observed, reaching a peak of 38.6% cover in February 2013. At this peak, we observed a proliferation of a second macroalgal species, Lobophora variegata. Lobophora was distributed non-randomly, with higher abundances occurring within the shelter of Liagora canopies than on exposed substrates. Bite rates of two common herbivorous fish (Chlorurus sordidus and Ctenochaetus striatus) were significantly higher outside canopies (2.5- and sixfold, respectively), and cage exclusion resulted in a significant increase in Lobophora cover. Experimental removal of Liagora canopies resulted in a 53.1% decline in the surface area of Lobophora after 12 days, compared to a 51.7% increase within canopies. Collectively, these results indicate that Liagora canopies act as ecological facilitators, providing a 'nursery' exclusion zone from the impact of herbivorous fish, allowing for the establishment of understory Lobophora. While the ephemeral Liagora bloom had disappeared entirely 9 months post-typhoon, the facilitated shift to Lobophora has persisted for over 18 months, dominating ~40% of the reef substrate. While acute disturbance events such as typhoons have been suggested as a mechanism to reverse algal phase shifts, our results suggest that typhoons may also trigger, rather than just reverse, phase shifts.
Multi-scale, object-based image analysis for mapping geomorphic and ecological zones on coral reefs
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 08-12-2011
Effects of ocean acidification on the potency of macroalgal allelopathy to a common coral
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-2017
DOI: 10.1038/SREP41053
Abstract: Many coral reefs have phase shifted from coral to macroalgal dominance. Ocean acidification (OA) due to elevated CO 2 is hypothesised to advantage macroalgae over corals, contributing to these shifts, but the mechanisms affecting coral-macroalgal interactions under OA are unknown. Here, we show that (i) three common macroalgae are more damaging to a common coral when they compete under CO 2 concentrations predicted to occur in 2050 and 2100 than under present-day conditions, (ii) that two macroalgae damage corals via allelopathy, and (iii) that one macroalga is allelopathic under conditions of elevated CO 2 , but not at ambient levels. Lipid-soluble, surface extracts from the macroalga Canistrocarpus (= Dictyota) cervicornis were significantly more damaging to the coral Acropora intermedia growing in the field if these extracts were from thalli grown under elevated vs ambient concentrations of CO 2 . Extracts from the macroalgae Chlorodesmis fastigiata and Amansia glomerata were not more potent when grown under elevated CO 2 . Our results demonstrate increasing OA advantages seaweeds over corals, that algal allelopathy can mediate coral-algal interactions, and that OA may enhance the allelopathy of some macroalgae. Other mechanisms also affect coral-macroalgal interactions under OA, and OA further suppresses the resilience of coral reefs suffering blooms of macroalgae.
Reef-scale failure of coral settlement following typhoon disturbance and macroalgal bloom in Palau, Western Pacific
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-04-2014
Fisheries and biodiversity benefits of using static versus dynamic models for designing marine reserve networks
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2015
DOI: 10.1890/ES14-00429.1
Revisiting success and failure of marine protected areas: A conservation scientist perspective
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 29-06-2018
Estimating rates of biologically driven coral reef framework production and erosion: a new census-based carbonate budget methodology and applications to the reefs of Bonaire
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-04-2012
Tradeoffs between fisheries harvest and the resilience of coral reefs
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 04-04-2016
Abstract: Fisheries management must avoid adverse impacts on the ecosystem. Doing so can be challenging in highly complex systems, particularly if the target species serves an important ecosystem function. Caribbean coral reefs provide a classic ex le in which herbivorous parrotfish are both an important fishery and key driver of ecosystem resilience. We developed and tested a multispecies fisheries model of parrotfish and linked it to a coral reef ecosystem experiencing climate change. We found that corals can remain resilient if less than 10% of the fishable parrotfish biomass is harvested and a minimum size of 30 cm is implemented. To our knowledge, this work is the first attempt to identify harvest levels that have little adverse effect on corals.
The shape of success in a turbulent world: wave exposure filtering of coral reef herbivory
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-02-2017
Organic carbon in seagrass sediments is influenced by seagrass canopy complexity, turbidity, wave height, and water depth
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-01-2016
DOI: 10.1002/LNO.10262
Detecting conservation benefits of marine reserves on remote reefs of the northern GBR
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 08-11-2017
Maps, laws and planning policy: Working with biophysical and spatial uncertainty in the case of sea level rise
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2014
A critique of claims for negative impacts of Marine Protected Areas on fisheries
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2016
DOI: 10.1890/15-0457
An Ecosystem-Level Perspective on the Host and Symbiont Traits Needed to Mitigate Climate Change Impacts on Caribbean Coral Reefs
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-09-2013
Impacts of macroalgal competition and parrotfish predation on the growth of a common bioeroding sponge
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 10-01-2012
DOI: 10.3354/MEPS09424
Impact of sea-level rise and coral mortality on the wave dynamics and wave forces on barrier reefs
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2014
DOI: 10.1016/J.MARPOLBUL.2014.03.058
Abstract: A one-dimensional wave model was used to investigate the reef top wave dynamics across a large suite of idealized reef-lagoon profiles, representing barrier coral reef systems under different sea-level rise (SLR) scenarios. The modeling shows that the impacts of SLR vary spatially and are strongly influenced by the bathymetry of the reef and coral type. A complex response occurs for the wave orbital velocity and forces on corals, such that the changes in the wave dynamics vary reef by reef. Different wave loading regimes on massive and branching corals also leads to contrasting impacts from SLR. For many reef bathymetries, wave orbital velocities increase with SLR and cyclonic wave forces are reduced for certain coral species. These changes may be beneficial to coral health and colony resilience and imply that predicting SLR impacts on coral reefs requires careful consideration of the reef bathymetry and the mix of coral species.
Prioritizing Key Resilience Indicators to Support Coral Reef Management in a Changing Climate
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 29-08-2012
Moving beyond heritability in the search for coral adaptive potential
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-04-2023
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16719
Abstract: Global environmental change is happening at unprecedented rates. Coral reefs are among the ecosystems most threatened by global change. For wild populations to persist, they must adapt. Knowledge shortfalls about corals' complex ecological and evolutionary dynamics, however, stymie predictions about potential adaptation to future conditions. Here, we review adaptation through the lens of quantitative genetics. We argue that coral adaptation studies can benefit greatly from “wild” quantitative genetic methods, where traits are studied in wild populations undergoing natural selection, genomic relationship matrices can replace breeding experiments, and analyses can be extended to examine genetic constraints among traits. In addition, in iduals with advantageous genotypes for anticipated future conditions can be identified. Finally, genomic genotyping supports simultaneous consideration of how genetic ersity is arrayed across geographic and environmental distances, providing greater context for predictions of phenotypic evolution at a metapopulation scale.
Conservation planning for connectivity across marine, freshwater, and terrestrial realms
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2010
Quantifying Multiscale Habitat Structural Complexity: A Cost-Effective Framework for Underwater 3D Modelling
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 04-02-2016
DOI: 10.3390/RS8020113
Cryptic coral recruits as dormant seed banks: An unrecognized mechanism of rapid reef recovery.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-02-2022
DOI: 10.1002/ECY.3621
The role of sponge competition on coral reef alternative steady states
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2011
Global disparity in the resilience of coral reefs
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2012.04.007
Abstract: The great sensitivity of coral reefs to climate change has raised concern over their resilience. An emerging body of resilience theory stems largely from research carried out in a single biogeographic region the Caribbean. Such geographic bias raises the question of transferability of concepts among regions. In this article, we identify factors that might predispose the Caribbean to its low resilience, including faster rates of macroalgal growth, higher rates of algal recruitment, basin-wide iron-enrichment of algal growth from aeolian dust, a lack of acroporid corals, lower herbivore biomass and missing groups of herbivores. Although mechanisms of resilience are likely to be ubiquitous, our analysis suggests that Indo-Pacific reefs would have to be heavily degraded to exhibit bistability or undergo coral-macroalgal phase shifts.
Impact of sea-level rise on cross-shore sediment transport on fetch-limited barrier reef island beaches under modal and cyclonic conditions
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.MARPOLBUL.2015.06.017
Abstract: A one-dimensional wave model is combined with an analytical sediment transport model to investigate the likely influence of sea-level rise on net cross-shore sediment transport on fetch-limited barrier reef and lagoon island beaches. The modelling considers if changes in the nearshore wave height and wave period in the lagoon induced by different water levels over the reef flat are likely to lead to net offshore or onshore movement of sediment. The results indicate that the effects of SLR on net sediment movement are highly variable and controlled by the bathymetry of the reef and lagoon. A significant range of reef-lagoon bathymetry, and notably shallow and narrow reefs, appears to lead hydrodynamic conditions and beaches that are likely to be stable or even accrete under SLR. Loss of reef structural complexity, particularly on the reef flat, increases the chance of sediment transport away from beaches and offshore.
Predicting the impact of logging activities on soil erosion and water quality in steep, forested tropical islands
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 04-2018
Seagrass ecosystem trajectory depends on the relative timescales of resistance, recovery and disturbance
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2018
DOI: 10.1016/J.MARPOLBUL.2017.09.006
Abstract: Seagrass ecosystems are inherently dynamic, responding to environmental change across a range of scales. Habitat requirements of seagrass are well defined, but less is known about their ability to resist disturbance. Specific means of recovery after loss are particularly difficult to quantify. Here we assess the resistance and recovery capacity of 12 seagrass genera. We document four classic trajectories of degradation and recovery for seagrass ecosystems, illustrated with ex les from around the world. Recovery can be rapid once conditions improve, but seagrass absence at landscape scales may persist for many decades, perpetuated by feedbacks and/or lack of seed or plant propagules to initiate recovery. It can be difficult to distinguish between slow recovery, recalcitrant degradation, and the need for a window of opportunity to trigger recovery. We propose a framework synthesizing how the spatial and temporal scales of both disturbance and seagrass response affect ecosystem trajectory and hence resilience.
Loss of coral reef growth capacity to track future increases in sea-level rise
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-2018
DOI: 10.1038/S41586-018-0194-Z
Abstract: Sea-level rise (SLR) is predicted to elevate water depths above coral reefs and to increase coastal wave exposure as ecological degradation limits vertical reef growth, but projections lack data on interactions between local rates of reef growth and sea level rise. Here we calculate the vertical growth potential of more than 200 tropical western Atlantic and Indian Ocean reefs, and compare these against recent and projected rates of SLR under different Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios. Although many reefs retain accretion rates close to recent SLR trends, few will have the capacity to track SLR projections under RCP4.5 scenarios without sustained ecological recovery, and under RCP8.5 scenarios most reefs are predicted to experience mean water depth increases of more than 0.5 m by 2100. Coral cover strongly predicts reef capacity to track SLR, but threshold cover levels that will be necessary to prevent submergence are well above those observed on most reefs. Urgent action is thus needed to mitigate climate, sea-level and future ecological changes in order to limit the magnitude of future reef submergence.
Revisiting climate thresholds and ecosystem collapse
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2011
DOI: 10.1890/11.WB.002
Resilience of branching and massive corals to wave loading under sea level rise – A coupled computational fluid dynamics-structural analysis
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2014
DOI: 10.1016/J.MARPOLBUL.2014.07.038
Abstract: Measurements of coral structural strength are coupled with a fluid dynamics-structural analysis to investigate the resilience of coral to wave loading under sea level rise and a typical Great Barrier Reef lagoon wave climate. The measured structural properties were used to determine the wave conditions and flow velocities that lead to structural failure. Hydrodynamic modelling was subsequently used to investigate the type of the bathymetry where coral is most vulnerable to breakage under cyclonic wave conditions, and how sea level rise (SLR) changes this vulnerability. Massive corals are determined not to be vulnerable to wave induced structural damage, whereas branching corals are susceptible at wave induced orbital velocities exceeding 0.5m/s. Model results from a large suite of idealised bathymetry suggest that SLR of 1m or a loss of skeleton strength of order 25% significantly increases the area of reef flat where branching corals are exposed to damaging wave induced flows.
Connectivity networks reveal the risks of crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks on the Great Barrier Reef
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-08-2014
Integrating regional conservation priorities for multiple objectives into national policy
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-09-2015
DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS9208
Abstract: Multinational conservation initiatives that prioritize investment across a region invariably navigate trade-offs among multiple objectives. It seems logical to focus where several objectives can be achieved efficiently, but such multi-objective hotspots may be ecologically inappropriate, or politically inequitable. Here we devise a framework to facilitate a regionally cohesive set of marine-protected areas driven by national preferences and supported by quantitative conservation prioritization analyses, and illustrate it using the Coral Triangle Initiative. We identify areas important for achieving six objectives to address ecosystem representation, threatened fauna, connectivity and climate change. We expose trade-offs between areas that contribute substantially to several objectives and those meeting one or two objectives extremely well. Hence there are two strategies to guide countries choosing to implement regional goals nationally: multi-objective hotspots and complementary sets of single-objective priorities. This novel framework is applicable to any multilateral or global initiative seeking to apply quantitative information in decision making.
Setting sustainable limits on anchoring to improve the resilience of coral reefs
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2023
The Ecological Role of Sharks on Coral Reefs
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2016.02.014
Abstract: Sharks are considered the apex predator of coral reefs, but the consequences of their global depletion are uncertain. Here we explore the ecological roles of sharks on coral reefs and, conversely, the importance of reefs for sharks. We find that most reef-associated shark species do not act as apex predators but instead function as mesopredators along with a erse group of reef fish. While sharks perform important direct and indirect ecological roles, the evidence to support hypothesised shark-driven trophic cascades that benefit corals is weak and equivocal. Coral reefs provide some functional benefits to sharks, but sharks do not appear to favour healthier reef environments. Restoring populations of sharks is important and can yet deliver ecological surprise.
Connectivity of Caribbean coral populations: complementary insights from empirical and modelled gene flow
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-01-2012
Changing dynamics of Caribbean reef carbonate budgets: emergence of reef bioeroders as critical controls on present and future reef growth potential
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 07-12-2014
Abstract: Coral cover has declined rapidly on Caribbean reefs since the early 1980s, reducing carbonate production and reef growth. Using a cross-regional dataset, we show that widespread reductions in bioerosion rates—a key carbonate cycling process—have accompanied carbonate production declines. Bioerosion by parrotfish, urchins, endolithic sponges and microendoliths collectively averages 2 G (where G = kg CaCO 3 m −2 yr −1 ) (range 0.96–3.67 G). This rate is at least 75% lower than that reported from Caribbean reefs prior to their shift towards their present degraded state. Despite chronic overfishing, parrotfish are the dominant bioeroders, but erosion rates are reduced from averages of approximately 4 to 1.6 G. Urchin erosion rates have declined further and are functionally irrelevant to bioerosion on most reefs. These changes demonstrate a fundamental shift in Caribbean reef carbonate budget dynamics. To-date, reduced bioerosion rates have partially offset carbonate production declines, limiting the extent to which more widespread transitions to negative budget states have occurred. However, given the poor prognosis for coral recovery in the Caribbean and reported shifts to coral community states dominated by slower calcifying taxa, a continued transition from production to bioerosion-controlled budget states, which will increasingly threaten reef growth, is predicted.
Caribbean-wide decline in carbonate production threatens coral reef growth
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-01-2013
DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS2409
Winners and losers as mangrove, coral and seagrass ecosystems respond to sea-level rise in Solomon Islands
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 09-2017
Abstract: A 2007 earthquake in the western Solomon Islands resulted in a localised subsidence event in which sea level (relative to the previous coastal settings) rose approximately 30–70 cm, providing insight into impacts of future rapid changes to sea level on coastal ecosystems. Here, we show that increasing sea level by 30–70 cm can have contrasting impacts on mangrove, seagrass and coral reef ecosystems. Coral reef habitats were the clear winners with a steady lateral growth from 2006–2014, yielding a 157% increase in areal coverage over seven years. Mangrove ecosystems, on the other hand, suffered the largest impact through a rapid dieback of 35% (130 ha) of mangrove forest in the study area after subsidence. These forests, however, had partially recovered seven years after the earthquake albeit with a different community structure. The shallow seagrass ecosystems demonstrated the most dynamic response to relative shifts in sea level with both losses and gains in areal extent at small scales of 10–100 m. The results of this study emphasize the importance of considering the impacts of sea-level rise within a complex landscape in which winners and losers may vary over time and space.
Quantifying temporal change in biodiversity: Challenges and opportunities
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 07-01-2013
Abstract: Growing concern about bio ersity loss underscores the need to quantify and understand temporal change. Here, we review the opportunities presented by bio ersity time series, and address three related issues: (i) recognizing the characteristics of temporal data (ii) selecting appropriate statistical procedures for analysing temporal data and (iii) inferring and forecasting bio ersity change. With regard to the first issue, we draw attention to defining characteristics of bio ersity time series—lack of physical boundaries, uni-dimensionality, autocorrelation and directionality—that inform the choice of analytic methods. Second, we explore methods of quantifying change in bio ersity at different timescales, noting that autocorrelation can be viewed as a feature that sheds light on the underlying structure of temporal change. Finally, we address the transition from inferring to forecasting bio ersity change, highlighting potential pitfalls associated with phase-shifts and novel conditions.
Response
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 18-04-2008
Emigration patterns of motile cryptofauna and their implications for trophic functioning in coral reefs
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2023
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.9960
Abstract: Patterns of movement of marine species can reflect strategies of reproduction and dispersal, species' interactions, trophodynamics, and susceptibility to change, and thus critically inform how we manage populations and ecosystems. On coral reefs, the density and ersity of metazoan taxa are greatest in dead coral and rubble, which are suggested to fuel food webs from the bottom up. Yet, biomass and secondary productivity in rubble is predominantly available in some of the smallest in iduals, limiting how accessible this energy is to higher trophic levels. We address the bioavailability of motile coral reef cryptofauna based on small‐scale patterns of emigration in rubble. We deployed modified RUbble Bio ersity S lers (RUBS) and emergence traps in a shallow rubble patch at Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef, to detect community‐level differences in the directional influx of motile cryptofauna under five habitat accessibility regimes. The mean density (0.13–4.5 ind cm −3 ) and biomass (0.14–5.2 mg cm −3 ) of cryptofauna were high and varied depending on microhabitat accessibility. Emergent zooplankton represented a distinct community (dominated by the Appendicularia and Calanoida) with the lowest density and biomass, indicating constraints on nocturnal resource availability. Mean cryptofauna density and biomass were greatest when interstitial access within rubble was blocked, driven by the rapid proliferation of small harpacticoid copepods from the rubble surface, leading to trophic simplification. In iduals with high biomass (e.g., decapods, gobies, and echinoderms) were greatest when interstitial access within rubble was unrestricted. Treatments with a closed rubble surface did not differ from those completely open, suggesting that top‐down predation does not diminish rubble‐derived resources. Our results show that conspecific cues and species' interactions (e.g., competition and predation) within rubble are most critical in shaping ecological outcomes within the cryptobiome. These findings have implications for prey accessibility through trophic and community size structuring in rubble, which may become increasingly relevant as benthic reef complexity shifts in the Anthropocene.
Executives’ engagement with climate science and perceived need for business adaptation to climate change
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-03-2015
A roadmap to integrating resilience into the practice of coral reef restoration
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-05-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16212
Abstract: Recent warm temperatures driven by climate change have caused mass coral bleaching and mortality across the world, prompting managers, policymakers, and conservation practitioners to embrace restoration as a strategy to sustain coral reefs. Despite a proliferation of new coral reef restoration efforts globally and increasing scientific recognition and research on interventions aimed at supporting reef resilience to climate impacts, few restoration programs are currently incorporating climate change and resilience in project design. As climate change will continue to degrade coral reefs for decades to come, guidance is needed to support managers and restoration practitioners to conduct restoration that promotes resilience through enhanced coral reef recovery, resistance, and adaptation. Here, we address this critical implementation gap by providing recommendations that integrate resilience principles into restoration design and practice, including for project planning and design, coral selection, site selection, and broader ecosystem context. We also discuss future opportunities to improve restoration methods to support enhanced outcomes for coral reefs in response to climate change. As coral reefs are one of the most vulnerable ecosystems to climate change, interventions that enhance reef resilience will help to ensure restoration efforts have a greater chance of success in a warming world. They are also more likely to provide essential contributions to global targets to protect natural bio ersity and the human communities that rely on reefs.
Mangrove Habitat Use by Juvenile Reef Fish: Meta-Analysis Reveals that Tidal Regime Matters More than Biogeographic Region
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 31-12-2014
Revisiting the evidentiary basis for ecological cascades with conservation impacts
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-12-2021
DOI: 10.1111/CONL.12847
Abstract: Complex ecological interactions are widely utilized to deliver conservation benefits but their efficacy is often debated. Using a coral reef trophic cascade as an ex le, we reveal that outcomes can be surprisingly difficult to detect. Even important impacts of marine reserves can go undetected (20% more coral with power 0.5). This evidentiary challenge is compounded by misinterpretation of “nonsignificant” results as evidence of failed conservation practice. We illustrate a more appropriate analytical approach using a Bayesian Region of Practical Equivalence (ROPE) whereby many tests of conservation practice would be interpreted correctly as “undecided” rather than “negative.” Practitioners working with ecological cascades will increasingly be faced with “undecided” evidence of conservation benefits. Since one solution is to consider a wider ersity of evidence, we provide a hierarchy of evidentiary quality. In this way, even reductionist evidence of the component ecological interactions can be utilized, which is far easier to collect and evaluate.
A mid-term analysis of progress toward international biodiversity targets
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 10-10-2014
Abstract: In 2010, the international community, under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity, agreed on 20 bio ersity-related “Aichi Targets” to be achieved within a decade. We provide a comprehensive mid-term assessment of progress toward these global targets using 55 indicator data sets. We projected indicator trends to 2020 using an adaptive statistical framework that incorporated the specific properties of in idual time series. On current trajectories, results suggest that despite accelerating policy and management responses to the bio ersity crisis, the impacts of these efforts are unlikely to be reflected in improved trends in the state of bio ersity by 2020. We highlight areas of societal endeavor requiring additional efforts to achieve the Aichi Targets, and provide a baseline against which to assess future progress.
The IPBES Conceptual Framework — connecting nature and people
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2015
Evaluating sustainable development policies in rural coastal economies
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 21-12-2020
Abstract: Support for marine-based “blue growth” policies derives from their potential to simultaneously address United Nations Sustainable Development (SD) Goals on poverty alleviation and marine conservation. Modeling the linkages between a rural coastal economy and local fish resources, this work provides a rigorous ex ante assessment of common strategies to achieve SD objectives. We find that most of the considered policies increase target household incomes, negatively impact some nontarget households, and further deplete nearshore fish stocks. The results underscore the importance of considering characteristics of local economies and household linkages to marine and land resources when designing SD policies to avoid unintended consequences.
Small‐scale habitat complexity preserves ecosystem services on coral reefs
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-06-2023
Abstract: Coral reef habitat quality is declining in many locations because of heatwaves (coral bleaching) and other disturbances. Reef‐building corals provide refuge from predation, so declining complexity restricts the transfer of energy to upper trophic levels. We use a size‐based ecosystem model to test systematically the effects of refuge at specific sizes and the impacts of distributions of refuges that vary in size. Outcomes are assessed in terms of ecosystem service provision. Simulations indicate that refuge sheltering fish between 5 and 10 cm in length enhances fish biomass and fisheries productivity, for ex le, increasing herbivore biomass by up to 80%. We identify and present a range of refuge profiles that can theoretically improve ecosystem service provision by as much as sixfold. Profiles where refuge availability decreases with increasing fish size consistently outrank other designs. Synthesis and application : These results highlight how critical small‐scale refuge is for coral reefs, and how we might design artificial reefs to maximise service provision.
No apparent trade-offs associated with heat tolerance in a reef-building coral
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-04-2023
DOI: 10.1038/S42003-023-04758-6
Abstract: As marine species adapt to climate change, their heat tolerance will likely be under strong selection. Yet trade-offs between heat tolerance and other life history traits could compromise natural adaptation or assisted evolution. This is particularly important for ecosystem engineers, such as reef-building corals, which support bio ersity yet are vulnerable to heatwave-induced mass bleaching and mortality. Here, we exposed 70 colonies of the reef-building coral Acropora digitifera to a long-term marine heatwave emulation experiment. We tested for trade-offs between heat tolerance and three traits measured from the colonies in situ – colony growth, fecundity, and symbiont community composition. Despite observing remarkable within-population variability in heat tolerance, all colonies were dominated by Cladocopium C40 symbionts. We found no evidence for trade-offs between heat tolerance and fecundity or growth. Contrary to expectations, positive associations emerged with growth, such that faster-growing colonies tended to bleach and die at higher levels of heat stress. Collectively, our results suggest that these corals exist on an energetic continuum where some high-performing in iduals excel across multiple traits. Within populations, trade-offs between heat tolerance and growth or fecundity may not be major barriers to natural adaptation or the success of assisted evolution interventions.
Seascapes as drivers of herbivore assemblages in coral reef ecosystems
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-11-2018
DOI: 10.1002/ECM.1336
Direct and indirect effects of nursery habitats on coral‐reef fish assemblages, grazing pressure and benthic dynamics
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-11-2015
DOI: 10.1111/OIK.02602
Reciprocal facilitation and non‐linearity maintain habitat engineering on coral reefs
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-09-2012
The effect of structurally complex corals and herbivory on the dynamics of Halimeda
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-02-2016
Avoiding coral reef functional collapse requires local and global action
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2013
DOI: 10.1016/J.CUB.2013.04.020
Abstract: Coral reefs face multiple anthropogenic threats, from pollution and overfishing to the dual effects of greenhouse gas emissions: rising sea temperature and ocean acidification. While the abundance of coral has declined in recent decades, the implications for humanity are difficult to quantify because they depend on ecosystem function rather than the corals themselves. Most reef functions and ecosystem services are founded on the ability of reefs to maintain their three-dimensional structure through net carbonate accumulation. Coral growth only constitutes part of a reef's carbonate budget bioerosion processes are influential in determining the balance between net structural growth and disintegration. Here, we combine ecological models with carbonate budgets and drive the dynamics of Caribbean reefs with the latest generation of climate models. Budget reconstructions using documented ecological perturbations drive shallow (6-10 m) Caribbean forereefs toward an increasingly fragile carbonate balance. We then projected carbonate budgets toward 2080 and contrasted the benefits of local conservation and global action on climate change. Local management of fisheries (specifically, no-take marine reserves) and the watershed can delay reef loss by at least a decade under "business-as-usual" rises in greenhouse gas emissions. However, local action must be combined with a low-carbon economy to prevent degradation of reef structures and associated ecosystem services.
Remote Sensing of Coral Bleaching Using Temperature and Light: Progress towards an Operational Algorithm
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 22-12-2017
DOI: 10.3390/RS10010018
Seagrass morphometrics at species level in Moreton Bay, Australia from 2012 to 2013
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-05-2017
Abstract: Seagrass above, below and total biomass, density and leaf area, length and width were quantified at a species level for 122 sites over three s ling periods in Moreton Bay, Australia. Core s les were collected in two regions: (1) a high water quality region with varying species assemblages and canopy complexity (98 sites) and (2) along a turbidity gradient in the bay (24 sites within four locations). Core s les were collected using a 15 cm diameter×20 cm long corer. Seagrass dry biomass per component was quantified per species present in each s le. A total of 220 biomass and density data records are included, 130 from the high water quality region and 90 from the turbidity gradient. These data provide a detailed assessment of biomass, density and leaf metrics per species s led from Moreton Bay over 2012–2013. In future, these can be used as a baseline to assess seasonal and spatial variation within the bay, within the region and among regions.
Coral Reefs Under Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidification
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 14-12-2007
Abstract: Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is expected to exceed 500 parts per million and global temperatures to rise by at least 2°C by 2050 to 2100, values that significantly exceed those of at least the past 420,000 years during which most extant marine organisms evolved. Under conditions expected in the 21st century, global warming and ocean acidification will compromise carbonate accretion, with corals becoming increasingly rare on reef systems. The result will be less erse reef communities and carbonate reef structures that fail to be maintained. Climate change also exacerbates local stresses from declining water quality and overexploitation of key species, driving reefs increasingly toward the tipping point for functional collapse. This review presents future scenarios for coral reefs that predict increasingly serious consequences for reef-associated fisheries, tourism, coastal protection, and people. As the International Year of the Reef 2008 begins, scaled-up management intervention and decisive action on global emissions are required if the loss of coral-dominated ecosystems is to be avoided.
Transforming management of tropical coastal seas to cope with challenges of the 21st century
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2014
DOI: 10.1016/J.MARPOLBUL.2014.06.005
Abstract: Over 1.3 billion people live on tropical coasts, primarily in developing countries. Many depend on adjacent coastal seas for food, and livelihoods. We show how trends in demography and in several local and global anthropogenic stressors are progressively degrading capacity of coastal waters to sustain these people. Far more effective approaches to environmental management are needed if the loss in provision of ecosystem goods and services is to be stemmed. We propose expanded use of marine spatial planning as a framework for more effective, pragmatic management based on ocean zones to accommodate conflicting uses. This would force the holistic, regional-scale reconciliation of food security, livelihoods, and conservation that is needed. Transforming how countries manage coastal resources will require major change in policy and politics, implemented with sufficient flexibility to accommodate societal variations. Achieving this change is a major challenge - one that affects the lives of one fifth of humanity.
Uniting paradigms of connectivity in marine ecology
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2016
DOI: 10.1002/ECY.1463
Abstract: The connectivity of marine organisms among habitat patches has been dominated by two independent paradigms with distinct conservation strategies. One paradigm is the dispersal of larvae on ocean currents, which suggests networks of marine reserves. The other is the demersal migration of animals from nursery to adult habitats, requiring the conservation of connected ecosystem corridors. Here, we suggest that a common driver, wave exposure, links larval and demersal connectivity across the seascape. To study the effect of linked connectivities on fish abundance at reefs, we parameterize a demographic model for The Bahamas seascape using maps of habitats, empirically forced models of wave exposure and spatially realistic three-dimensional hydrological models of larval dispersal. The integrated empirical-modeling approach enabled us to study linked connectivity on a scale not currently possible by purely empirical studies. We find sheltered environments not only provide greater nursery habitat for juvenile fish but larvae spawned on adjacent reefs have higher retention, thereby creating a synergistic increase in fish abundance. Uniting connectivity paradigms to consider all life stages simultaneously can help explain the evolution of nursery habitat use and simplifies conservation advice: Reserves in sheltered environments have desirable characteristics for bio ersity conservation and can support local fisheries through adult spillover.
Operationalizing the Resilience of Coral Reefs in an Era of Climate Change
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-06-2013
DOI: 10.1111/CONL.12047
Ocean acidification reduces coral recruitment by disrupting intimate larval‐algal settlement interactions
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-02-2012
DOI: 10.1111/J.1461-0248.2012.01743.X
Abstract: Ecology Letters (2012) 15: 338-346 ABSTRACT: Successful recruitment in shallow reef ecosystems often involves specific cues that connect planktonic invertebrate larvae with particular crustose coralline algae (CCA) during settlement. While ocean acidification (OA) can reduce larval settlement and the abundance of CCA, the impact of OA on the interactions between planktonic larvae and their preferred settlement substrate are unknown. Here, we demonstrate that CO2 concentrations (800 and 1300 μatm) predicted to occur by the end of this century significantly reduce coral (Acropora millepora) settlement and CCA cover by ≥ 45%. The CCA important for inducing coral settlement (Titanoderma spp., Hydrolithon spp.) were the most deleteriously affected by OA. Surprisingly, the only preferred settlement substrate (Titanoderma) in the experimental controls was avoided by coral larvae as pCO2 increased, and other substrata selected. Our results suggest OA may reduce coral population recovery by reducing coral settlement rates, disrupting larval settlement behaviour, and reducing the availability of the most desirable coralline algal species for successful coral recruitment.
Drivers of global mangrove loss and gain in social-ecological systems
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-10-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-022-33962-X
Abstract: Mangrove forests store high amounts of carbon, protect communities from storms, and support fisheries. Mangroves exist in complex social-ecological systems, hence identifying socioeconomic conditions associated with decreasing losses and increasing gains remains challenging albeit important. The impact of national governance and conservation policies on mangrove conservation at the landscape-scale has not been assessed to date, nor have the interactions with local economic pressures and biophysical drivers. Here, we assess the relationship between socioeconomic and biophysical variables and mangrove change across coastal geomorphic units worldwide from 1996 to 2016. Globally, we find that drivers of loss can also be drivers of gain, and that drivers have changed over 20 years. The association with economic growth appears to have reversed, shifting from negatively impacting mangroves in the first decade to enabling mangrove expansion in the second decade. Importantly, we find that community forestry is promoting mangrove expansion, whereas conversion to agriculture and aquaculture, often occurring in protected areas, results in high loss. Sustainable development, community forestry, and co-management of protected areas are promising strategies to reverse mangrove losses, increasing the capacity of mangroves to support human-livelihoods and combat climate change.
Transient Grazing and the Dynamics of an Unanticipated Coral–Algal Phase Shift
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-06-2018
Climate refugia on the Great Barrier Reef fail when global warming exceeds 3°C.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-08-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16323
Abstract: Increases in the magnitude, frequency, and duration of warm seawater temperatures are causing mass coral mortality events across the globe. Although, even during the most extensive bleaching events, some reefs escape exposure to severe stress, constituting potential refugia. Here, we identify present-day climate refugia on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and project their persistence into the future. To do this, we apply semi-dynamic downscaling to an ensemble of climate projections released for the IPCC's recent sixth Assessment Report. We find that GBR locations experiencing the least thermal stress over the past 20 years have done so because of their oceanographic circumstance, which implies that longer-term persistence of climate refugia is feasible. Specifically, tidal and wind mixing of warm water away from the sea surface appears to provide relief from warming. However, on average this relative advantage only persists until global warming exceeds ~3°C.
Response to rebutting the inclined analyses on the cost-effectiveness and feasibility of coral reef restoration
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-08-2017
DOI: 10.1002/EAP.1583
Spectral unmixing of coral reef benthos under ideal conditions
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-2004
Avoiding a crisis of motivation for ocean management under global environmental change
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-04-2017
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.13698
Abstract: Climate change and ocean acidification are altering marine ecosystems and, from a human perspective, creating both winners and losers. Human responses to these changes are complex, but may result in reduced government investments in regulation, resource management, monitoring and enforcement. Moreover, a lack of peoples' experience of climate change may drive some towards attributing the symptoms of climate change to more familiar causes such as management failure. Taken together, we anticipate that management could become weaker and less effective as climate change continues. Using erse case studies, including the decline of coral reefs, coastal defences from flooding, shifting fish stocks and the emergence of new shipping opportunities in the Arctic, we argue that human interests are better served by increased investments in resource management. But greater government investment in management does not simply mean more of "business-as-usual." Management needs to become more flexible, better at anticipating and responding to surprise, and able to facilitate change where it is desirable. A range of technological, economic, communication and governance solutions exists to help transform management. While not all have been tested, judicious application of the most appropriate solutions should help humanity adapt to novel circumstances and seek opportunity where possible.
The importance of 1.5°C warming for the Great Barrier Reef.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-11-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.15994
Abstract: Tropical coral reefs are among the most sensitive ecosystems to climate change and will benefit from the more ambitious aims of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's Paris Agreement, which proposed to limit global warming to 1.5° rather than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Only in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change focussed assessment, the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6), have climate models been used to investigate the 1.5° warming scenario directly. Here, we combine the most recent model updates from CMIP6 with a semi-dynamic downscaling to evaluate the difference between the 1.5 and 2°C global warming targets on coral thermal stress metrics for the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). By ~2080, severe bleaching events are expected to occur annually under intensifying emissions (shared socioeconomic pathway SSP5-8.5). Adherence to 2° warming (SSP1-2.6) halves this frequency but the main benefit of confining warming to 1.5° (SSP1-1.9) is that bleaching events are reduced further to 3 events per decade. Attaining low emissions of 1.5° is also paramount to prevent the mean magnitude of thermal stress from stabilizing close to a critical thermal threshold (8 Degree Heating Weeks). Thermal stress under the more pessimistic pathways SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5 is three to fourfold higher than the present day, with grave implications for future reef ecosystem health. As global warming continues, our projections also indicate more regional warming in the central and southern GBR than the far north and northern GBR.
Hierarchical drivers of cryptic biodiversity on coral reefs
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-07-2023
DOI: 10.1002/ECM.1586
Abstract: Declines in habitat structural complexity have marked ecological outcomes, as currently observed in many of the world's ecosystems. Coral reefs have provided a model for such changes in marine ecosystems still our understanding has been centered on corals and fishes at broad spatial scales when metazoan ersity on coral reefs is dominated by small cryptic taxa (herein: “cryptofauna”). Given the paucity of studies and high taxonomic complexity of the cryptofauna, both of which limit a priori hypotheses, we asked whether hierarchical structuring theory provides a compelling framework to impose order and quantify patterns. In general terms, we explored whether cryptic communities are sufficiently described by broad seascape parameters or limited by a set of processes operating at their distinctly nested microhabitat scale. To address this theory and gaps in knowledge for the cryptofauna, we characterized community structure in coral rubble, an eroded coral condition where bio ersity proliferates. Rubble was s led along a depth and exposure gradient at Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, to parameterize environmental and morphological indicators of sessile taxa and motile cryptofauna communities. We used a hierarchical study framework from microhabitat to seascape scales, which were evaluated using nonstructured multivariate analyses and Bayesian structural equation modeling. While the nonstructured analyses showed the effects of seascape on the cryptobenthos and its community, this approach overlooked the finer hierarchical patterns in rubble ecology revealed only in the structured model. Seascape parameters (exposure and depth) influenced microhabitat complexity (i.e., rubble branchiness), which determined the cover of sessile organisms on rubble pieces, which shaped the motile cryptofauna community. Rubble is likely to be increasingly prevalent on coral reefs in the Anthropocene and is typically associated with low seascape‐level complexity and reduced macrofaunal richness. Parallel with hierarchical structuring theory, we showed a similar response operating at the microhabitat scale whereby low rubble complexity (i.e., branchiness) reduced cryptobenthic structure, ersity and size spectra. In a future ocean, we expect there may be an initial increase in bio ersity and trophodynamic processes derived from branching rubble, but a delay in ecosystem‐scale outcomes if coral, and thus rubble, generation and complexity is not sustained.
Synergistic impacts of global warming on the resilience of coral reefs
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 05-01-2015
Abstract: Recent epizootics have removed important functional species from Caribbean coral reefs and left communities vulnerable to alternative attractors. Global warming will impact reefs further through two mechanisms. A chronic mechanism reduces coral calcification, which can result in depressed somatic growth. An acute mechanism, coral bleaching, causes extreme mortality when sea temperatures become anomalously high. We ask how these two mechanisms interact in driving future reef state (coral cover) and resilience (the probability of a reef remaining within a coral attractor). We find that acute mechanisms have the greatest impact overall, but the nature of the interaction with chronic stress depends on the metric considered. Chronic and acute stress act additively on reef state but form a strong synergy when influencing resilience by intensifying a regime shift. Chronic stress increases the size of the algal basin of attraction (at the expense of the coral basin), whereas coral bleaching pushes the system closer to the algal attractor. Resilience can change faster—and earlier—than a change in reef state. Therefore, we caution against basing management solely on measures of reef state because a loss of resilience can go unnoticed for many years and then become disproportionately more difficult to restore.
Ocean acidification and warming will lower coral reef resilience
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-01-2011
Temporal clustering of tropical cyclones on the Great Barrier Reef and its ecological importance
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-01-2016
Quantifying the reliability of dispersal paths in connectivity networks
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 04-2015
Abstract: Many biological systems, from fragmented landscapes to host populations, can be represented as networks of connected habitat patches. Links between patches in these connectivity networks can represent equally erse processes, from in iduals moving through the landscape to pathogen transmissions or successive colonization events in metapopulations. Any of these processes can be characterized as stochastic, with functional links among patches that exist with various levels of certainty. This stochasticity then needs to be reflected in the algorithms that aim to predict the dispersal routes in these networks. Here we adapt the concept of reliability to characterize the likelihood that a specific path will be used for dispersal in a probabilistic connectivity network. The most reliable of the paths that connect two patches will then identify the most likely sequence of intermediate steps between these patches. Path reliability will be sensitive to targeted disruptions of in idual links that form the path, and this can then be used to plan the interventions aimed at either preserving or disrupting the dispersal along that path. The proposed approach is general, and can be used to identify the most likely dispersal routes in various contexts, such as predicting patterns of migrations, colonizations, invasions and epidemics.
Rising to the challenge of sustaining coral reef resilience
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2010
DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2010.07.011
Abstract: Phase-shifts from one persistent assemblage of species to another have become increasingly commonplace on coral reefs and in many other ecosystems due to escalating human impacts. Coral reef science, monitoring and global assessments have focused mainly on producing detailed descriptions of reef decline, and continue to pay insufficient attention to the underlying processes causing degradation. A more productive way forward is to harness new theoretical insights and empirical information on why some reefs degrade and others do not. Learning how to avoid undesirable phase-shifts, and how to reverse them when they occur, requires an urgent reform of scientific approaches, policies, governance structures and coral reef management.
Contribution of individual rivers to Great Barrier Reef nitrogen exposure with implications for management prioritization
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2018
DOI: 10.1016/J.MARPOLBUL.2018.04.069
Abstract: Dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) runoff from Great Barrier Reef (GBR) catchments is a threat to coral reef health. Several initiatives address this threat, including the Australian Government's Reef 2050 Plan. However, environmental decision makers face an unsolved prioritization challenge: determining the exposure of reefs to DIN from in idual rivers. Here, we use virtual river tracers embedded within a GBR-wide hydrodynamic model to resolve the spatial and temporal dynamics of 16 in idual river plumes during three wet seasons (2011-2013). We then used in-situ DIN observations to calibrate tracer values, allowing us to estimate the contribution of each river to reef-scale DIN exposure during each season. Results indicate that the Burdekin, Fitzroy, Tully and Daintree rivers pose the greatest DIN exposure risk to coral reefs during the three seasons examined. Results were used to demonstrate a decision support framework that combines reef exposure risk with river dominance (threat ersity).
Reconciling Development and Conservation under Coastal Squeeze from Rising Sea Level
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-12-2015
DOI: 10.1111/CONL.12213
Macroalgal associations of motile epifaunal invertebrate communities on coral reefs
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-06-2013
DOI: 10.1111/MAEC.12040
Porites and the Phoenix effect: unprecedented recovery after a mass coral bleaching event at Rangiroa Atoll, French Polynesia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-04-2014
Remote sensing of the coastal zone: An overview and priorities for future research
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2003
Ecological resilience, robustness and vulnerability: how do these concepts benefit ecosystem management?
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2014
Regional‐scale dominance of non‐framework building corals on Caribbean reefs affects carbonate production and future reef growth
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-12-2014
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.12792
Abstract: Coral cover on Caribbean reefs has declined rapidly since the early 1980's. Diseases have been a major driver, decimating communities of framework building Acropora and Orbicella coral species, and reportedly leading to the emergence of novel coral assemblages often dominated by domed and plating species of the genera Agaricia , Porites and Siderastrea . These corals were not historically important Caribbean framework builders, and typically have much smaller stature and lower calcification rates, fuelling concerns over reef carbonate production and growth potential. Using data from 75 reefs from across the Caribbean we quantify: (i) the magnitude of non‐framework building coral dominance throughout the region and (ii) the contribution of these corals to contemporary carbonate production. Our data show that live coral cover averages 18.2% across our sites and coral carbonate production 4.1 kg Ca CO 3 m −2 yr −1 . However, non‐framework building coral species dominate and are major carbonate producers at a high proportion of sites they are more abundant than Acropora and Orbicella at 73% of sites contribute an average 68% of the carbonate produced and produce more than half the carbonate at 79% of sites. Coral cover and carbonate production rate are strongly correlated but, as relative abundance of non‐framework building corals increases, average carbonate production rates decline. Consequently, the use of coral cover as a predictor of carbonate budget status, without species level production rate data, needs to be treated with caution. Our findings provide compelling evidence for the Caribbean‐wide dominance of non‐framework building coral taxa, and that these species are now major regional carbonate producers. However, because these species typically have lower calcification rates, continued transitions to states dominated by non‐framework building coral species will further reduce carbonate production rates below ‘predecline’ levels, resulting in shifts towards negative carbonate budget states and reducing reef growth potential.
Functional and phylogenetic responses of motile cryptofauna to habitat degradation
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-09-2022
Abstract: Bio ersity of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, is dominated by small, often cryptic, invertebrate taxa that play important roles in ecosystem structure and functioning. While cryptofauna community structure is determined by strong small‐scale microhabitat associations, the extent to which ecological and environmental factors shape these communities are largely unknown, as is the relative importance of particular microhabitats in supporting reef trophodynamics from the bottom up. The goal of this study was to address these knowledge gaps, provided coral reefs are increasingly exposed to multiple disturbances and environmental gradients that influence habitat complexity, condition and ecosystem functioning. We compared the density, biomass, size range, phylogenetic ersity and functional roles of motile cryptofauna in Palau, Western Micronesia, among four coral‐derived microhabitats representing various states of degradation (live coral [ Acropora and Pocillopora ], dead coral and coral rubble) from reefs along a gradient of effluent exposure. In total, 122 families across ten phyla were identified, dominated by the Arthropoda (Crustacea) and Mollusca. Cryptofauna biomass was greatest in live Pocillopora , while coral rubble contained the greatest density and ersity. Size ranges were broader in live corals than both dead coral and rubble. From a bottom‐up perspective, effluent exposure had mixed effects on cryptic communities including a decline in total biomass in rubble. From a top‐down perspective, cryptofauna were generally unaffected by predator biomass. Our data show that, as coral reef ecosystems continue to decline in response to more frequent and severe disturbances, habitats other than live coral may become increasingly important in supporting coral reef bio ersity and food webs.
Impaired recovery of the Great Barrier Reef under cumulative stress
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 06-07-2018
Abstract: The GBR is losing its ability to recover from disturbances, but local management action can help partially restore this ability.
Asymmetric dispersal is a critical element of concordance between biophysical dispersal models and spatial genetic structure in Great Barrier Reef corals
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 25-10-2018
DOI: 10.1101/453001
Abstract: Widespread coral bleaching, crown-of-thorns seastar outbreaks, and tropical storms all threaten foundational coral species of the Great Barrier Reef, with impacts differing over time and space. Yet, dispersal via larval propagules could aid reef recovery by supplying new settlers and enabling the spread of adaptive variation among regions. Documenting and predicting spatial connections arising from planktonic larval dispersal in marine species, however, remains a formidable challenge. The Great Barrier Reef, Australia Contemporary biophysical larval dispersal models were used to predict longdistance multigenerational connections for two common and foundational coral species ( Acropora tenuis and Acropora millepora ). Spatially extensive genetic surveys allowed us to infer signatures of asymmetric dispersal for these species and evaluate concordance against expectations from biophysical models using coalescent genetic simulations, directions of inferred gene flow, and spatial eigenvector modelling. At long distances, biophysical models predicted a preponderance of north to south connections and genetic results matched these expectations: coalescent genetic simulations rejected an alternative scenario of historical isolation the strongest signals of inferred gene flow were from north to south and asymmetric eigenvectors derived from north to south connections in the biophysical models were significantly better predictors of spatial genetic patterns than eigenvectors derived from symmetric null spatial models. Results are consistent with biophysical dispersal models yielding approximate summaries of past multigenerational gene flow conditioned upon directionality of connections. For A. tenuis and A. millepora , northern and central reefs have been important sources to downstream southern reefs over the recent evolutionary past and should continue to provide southward gene flow. Endemic genetic ersity of southern reefs suggests substantial local recruitment and lack of long distance gene flow from south to north.
Tracing the influence of land-use change on water quality and coral reefs using a Bayesian model
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-07-2017
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-017-05031-7
Abstract: Coastal ecosystems can be degraded by poor water quality. Tracing the causes of poor water quality back to land-use change is necessary to target catchment management for coastal zone management. However, existing models for tracing the sources of pollution require extensive data-sets which are not available for many of the world’s coral reef regions that may have severe water quality issues. Here we develop a hierarchical Bayesian model that uses freely available satellite data to infer the connection between land-uses in catchments and water clarity in coastal oceans. We apply the model to estimate the influence of land-use change on water clarity in Fiji. We tested the model’s predictions against underwater surveys, finding that predictions of poor water quality are consistent with observations of high siltation and low coverage of sediment-sensitive coral genera. The model thus provides a means to link land-use change to declines in coastal water quality.
Spatial and temporal variability of seagrass at Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 30-01-2015
Abstract: Increasing threats to natural ecosystems from local and global stressors are reinforcing the need for baseline data on the distribution and abundance of organisms. We quantified spatial and/or temporal patterns of seagrass distribution, shoot density, leaf area index, biomass, productivity, and sediment carbon content in shallow water (0–5 m) at Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, in field surveys conducted in December 2011 and October 2012. Seagrass meadows were mapped using satellite imagery and field validation. A total of 18.3 ha of seagrass, composed primarily of Thalassia hemprichii and Halodule uninervis, was mapped in shallow water. This was 46% less than the area of seagrass in the same region reported in 1995, although variations in mapping methods may have influenced the magnitude of change detected. There was inter-annual variability in shoot density and length, with values for both higher in 2011 than in 2012. Seagrass properties and sediment carbon content were representative of shallow-water seagrass meadows on a mid-shelf Great Barrier Reef island. The data can be used to evaluate change, to parameterize models of the impact of anthropogenic or environmental variability on seagrass distribution and abundance, and to assess the success of management actions.
Controlling range expansion in habitat networks by adaptively targeting source populations
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-02-2016
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.12665
Abstract: Controlling the spread of invasive species, pests, and pathogens is often logistically limited to interventions that target specific locations at specific periods. However, in complex, highly connected systems, such as marine environments connected by ocean currents, populations spread dynamically in both space and time via transient connectivity links. This results in nondeterministic future distributions of species in which local populations emerge dynamically and concurrently over a large area. The challenge, therefore, is to choose intervention locations that will maximize the effectiveness of the control efforts. We propose a novel method to manage dynamic species invasions and outbreaks that identifies the intervention locations most likely to curtail population expansion by selectively targeting local populations most likely to expand their future range. Critically, at any point during the development of the invasion or outbreak, the method identifies the local intervention that maximizes the long-term benefit across the ecosystem by restricting species' potential to spread. In so doing, the method adaptively selects the intervention targets under dynamically changing circumstances. To illustrate the effectiveness of the method we applied it to controlling the spread of crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster sp.) outbreaks across Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Application of our method resulted in an 18-fold relative improvement in management outcomes compared with a random targeting of reefs in putative starfish control scenarios. Although we focused on applying the method to reducing the spread of an unwanted species, it can also be used to facilitate the spread of desirable species through connectivity networks. For ex le, the method could be used to select those fragments of habitat most likely to rebuild a population if they were sufficiently well protected.
Fertilisation kinetics among common Indo-Pacific broadcast spawning corals with distinct and shared functional traits
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-10-2023
A holistic view of marine regime shifts
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 05-01-2015
Abstract: Understanding marine regime shifts is important not only for ecology but also for developing marine management that assures the provision of ecosystem services to humanity. While regime shift theory is well developed, there is still no common understanding on drivers, mechanisms and characteristic of abrupt changes in real marine ecosystems. Based on contributions to the present theme issue, we highlight some general issues that need to be overcome for developing a more comprehensive understanding of marine ecosystem regime shifts. We find a great ide between benthic reef and pelagic ocean systems in how regime shift theory is linked to observed abrupt changes. Furthermore, we suggest that the long-lasting discussion on the prevalence of top-down trophic or bottom-up physical drivers in inducing regime shifts may be overcome by taking into consideration the synergistic interactions of multiple stressors, and the special characteristics of different ecosystem types. We present a framework for the holistic investigation of marine regime shifts that considers multiple exogenous drivers that interact with endogenous mechanisms to cause abrupt, catastrophic change. This framework takes into account the time-delayed synergies of these stressors, which erode the resilience of the ecosystem and eventually enable the crossing of ecological thresholds. Finally, considering that increased pressures in the marine environment are predicted by the current climate change assessments, in order to avoid major losses of ecosystem services, we suggest that marine management approaches should incorporate knowledge on environmental thresholds and develop tools that consider regime shift dynamics and characteristics. This grand challenge can only be achieved through a holistic view of marine ecosystem dynamics as evidenced by this theme issue.
Decadal-scale rates of reef erosion following El Niño-related mass coral mortality
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2015
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.13006
Abstract: As the frequency and intensity of coral mortality events increase under climate change, understanding how declines in coral cover may affect the bioerosion of reef frameworks is of increasing importance. Here, we explore decadal-scale rates of bioerosion of the framework building coral Orbicella annularis by grazing parrotfish following the 1997/1998 El Niño-related mass mortality event at Long Cay, Belize. Using high-precision U-Th dating and CT scan analysis, we quantified in situ rates of external bioerosion over a 13-year period (1998-2011). Based upon the error-weighted average U-Th age of dead O. annularis skeletons, we estimate the average external bioerosion between 1998 and 2011 as 0.92 ± 0.55 cm depth. Empirical observations of herbivore foraging, and a nonlinear numerical response of parrotfish to an increase in food availability, were used to create a model of external bioerosion at Long Cay. Model estimates of external bioerosion were in close agreement with U-Th estimates (0.85 ± 0.09 cm). The model was then used to quantify how rates of external bioerosion changed across a gradient of coral mortality (i.e., from few corals experiencing mortality following coral bleaching to complete mortality). Our results indicate that external bioerosion is remarkably robust to declines in coral cover, with no significant relationship predicted between the rate of external bioerosion and the proportion of O. annularis that died in the 1998 bleaching event. The outcome was robust because the reduction in grazing intensity that follows coral mortality was compensated for by a positive numerical response of parrotfish to an increase in food availability. Our model estimates further indicate that for an O. annularis-dominated reef to maintain a positive state of reef accretion, a necessity for sustained ecosystem function, live cover of O. annularis must not drop below a ~5-10% threshold of cover.
Seagrass Organic Carbon Stocks Show Minimal Variation Over Short Time Scales in a Heterogeneous Subtropical Seascape
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-02-2018
Tectonic subsidence provides insight into possible coral reef futures under rapid sea-level rise
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-10-2015
Interactions among chronic and acute impacts on coral recruits: The importance of size-escape thresholds
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2012
DOI: 10.1890/12-0495.1
Abstract: Newly settled recruits typically suffer high mortality from disturbances, but rapid growth reduces their mortality once size-escape thresholds are attained. Ocean acidification (OA) reduces the growth of recruiting benthic invertebrates, yet no direct effects on survivorship have been demonstrated. We tested whether the reduced growth of coral recruits caused by OA would increase their mortality by prolonging their vulnerability to an acute disturbance: fish herbivory on surrounding algal turf. After two months' growth in ambient or elevated CO2 levels, the linear extension and calcification of coral (Acropora millepora) recruits decreased as CO2 partial pressure (pCO2) increased. When recruits were subjected to incidental fish grazing, their mortality was inversely size dependent. However, we also found an additive effect of pCO2 such that recruit mortality was higher under elevated pCO2 irrespective of size. Compared to ambient conditions, coral recruits needed to double their size at the highest pCO2 to escape incidental grazing mortality. This general trend was observed with three groups of predators (blenny, surgeonfish, and parrotfish), although the magnitude of the fish treatment varied among species. Our study demonstrates the importance of size-escape thresholds in early recruit survival and how OA can shift these thresholds, potentially intensifying population bottlenecks in benthic invertebrate recruitment.
Modelling and mapping regional‐scale patterns of fishing impact and fish stocks to support coral‐reef management in Micronesia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-07-2018
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.12814
Mass spawning aggregation of the giant bumphead parrotfish Bolbometopon muricatum
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-05-2017
DOI: 10.1111/JFB.13340
Abstract: The present study reports a previously undocumented mass spawning aggregation and group spawning phenomena of c. 1200 in idual bumphead parrotfish Bolbometopon muricatum in Palau, Micronesia. Although B. muricatum are protected in Palau, it is further recommended that management strategies should consider establishment of no-take zones at B. muricatum spawning aggregations and concomitant sleeping grounds elsewhere.
Interaction of herbivory and seasonality on the dynamics of Caribbean macroalgae
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-03-2012
The influence of resilience-based management on coral reef monitoring: A systematic review
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 10-02-2017
Food, money and lobsters: Valuing ecosystem services to align environmental management with Sustainable Development Goals
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2018
Multiple Stressors and the Functioning of Coral Reefs
Publisher: Annual Reviews
Date: 03-01-2017
DOI: 10.1146/ANNUREV-MARINE-010816-060551
Abstract: Coral reefs provide critical services to coastal communities, and these services rely on ecosystem functions threatened by stressors. By summarizing the threats to the functioning of reefs from fishing, climate change, and decreasing water quality, we highlight that these stressors have multiple, conflicting effects on functionally similar groups of species and their interactions, and that the overall effects are often uncertain because of a lack of data or variability among taxa. The direct effects of stressors on links among functional groups, such as predator-prey interactions, are particularly uncertain. Using qualitative modeling, we demonstrate that this uncertainty of stressor impacts on functional groups (whether they are positive, negative, or neutral) can have significant effects on models of ecosystem stability, and reducing uncertainty is vital for understanding changes to reef functioning. This review also provides guidance for future models of reef functioning, which should include interactions among functional groups and the cumulative effect of stressors.
Demographic resilience may sustain significant coral populations in a 2°C‐warmer world
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-05-2023
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16741
Abstract: Projections of coral reefs under climate change have important policy implications, but most analyses have focused on the intensification of climate‐related physical stress rather than explicitly modelling how coral populations respond to stressors. Here, we analyse the future of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) under multiple, spatially realistic drivers which allows less impacted sites to facilitate recovery. Under a Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 2.6 CMIP5 climate ensemble, where warming is capped at ~2°C, GBR mean coral cover declined mid‐century but approached present‐day levels towards 2100. This is considerably more optimistic than most analyses. However, under RCP4.5, mean coral cover declined by % by late‐century, and reached near zero under RCP ≥6.0. While these models do not allow for adaptation, they significantly extend past studies by revealing demographic resilience of coral populations to low levels of additional warming, though more pessimistic outcomes might be expected under CMIP6. Substantive coral populations under RCP2.6 would facilitate long‐term genetic adaptation, adding value to ambitious greenhouse emissions mitigation.
Use of skeletal Sr/Ca ratios to determine growth patterns in a branching coral Isopora palifera
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 30-03-2017
Habitat change mediates the response of coral reef fish populations to terrestrial run-off
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 03-08-2017
DOI: 10.3354/MEPS12221
Interpreting coral reef monitoring data: A guide for improved management decisions
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2017
Co-benefits not trade-offs associated with heat tolerance in a reef building coral
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 24-10-2022
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-1973987/V1
Abstract: As marine species adapt to climate change, their heat tolerance will likely be under strong selection. Yet trade-offs between heat tolerance and other life history traits could compromise natural adaptation or restorative assisted evolution. This is particularly important for ecosystem engineers, such as reef-building corals, which support bio ersity yet are vulnerable to heatwave-induced mass bleaching and mortality. Here, we exposed 70 colonies of the reef-building coral Acropora digitifera to a long-term marine heatwave emulation experiment. We tested for trade-offs between heat tolerance and three traits – colony growth (3D photogrammetry models), fecundity (oocyte counts), and symbiont community composition (ITS2 sequencing). Despite observing remarkable within-population variability in heat tolerance, all coral colonies were dominated by Cladocopium C40 symbionts. We found no evidence for trade-offs between heat tolerance and fecundity or growth. Contrary to expectations, positive associations emerged with growth, such that faster-growing colonies tended to bleach and die at higher levels of heat stress. Collectively, our results suggest that these corals exist on an energetic continuum where some in iduals have co-benefits across multiple traits. Within populations, trade-offs between heat tolerance and either growth or fecundity may not be major barriers to natural adaptation or the success of restorative assisted evolution interventions.
Vulnerability of the Great Barrier Reef to climate change and local pressures
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-02-2018
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.14043
Abstract: Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is under pressure from a suite of stressors including cyclones, crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS), nutrients from river run-off and warming events that drive mass coral bleaching. Two key questions are: how vulnerable will the GBR be to future environmental scenarios, and to what extent can local management actions lower vulnerability in the face of climate change? To address these questions, we use a simple empirical and mechanistic coral model to explore six scenarios that represent plausible combinations of climate change projections (from four Representative Concentration Pathways, RCPs), cyclones and local stressors. Projections (2017-2050) indicate significant potential for coral recovery in the near-term, relative to current state, followed by climate-driven decline. Under a scenario of unmitigated emissions (RCP8.5) and business-as-usual management of local stressors, mean coral cover on the GBR is predicted to recover over the next decade and then rapidly decline to only 3% by year 2050. In contrast, a scenario of strong carbon mitigation (RCP2.6) and improved water quality, predicts significant coral recovery over the next two decades, followed by a relatively modest climate-driven decline that sustained coral cover above 26% by 2050. In an analysis of the impacts of cumulative stressors on coral cover relative to potential coral cover in the absence of such impacts, we found that GBR-wide reef performance will decline 27%-74% depending on the scenario. Up to 66% of performance loss is attributable to local stressors. The potential for management to reduce vulnerability, measured here as the mean number of years coral cover can be kept above 30%, is spatially variable. Management strategies that alleviate cumulative impacts have the potential to reduce the vulnerability of some midshelf reefs in the central GBR by 83%, but only if combined with strong mitigation of carbon emissions.
Vulnerability of Coral Reef Fisheries to a Loss of Structural Complexity
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2014
DOI: 10.1016/J.CUB.2014.03.026
Abstract: Coral reefs face a erse array of threats, from eutrophication and overfishing to climate change. As live corals are lost and their skeletons eroded, the structural complexity of reefs declines. This may have important consequences for the survival and growth of reef fish because complex habitats mediate predator-prey interactions [1, 2] and influence competition [3-5] through the provision of prey refugia. A positive correlation exists between structural complexity and reef fish abundance and ersity in both temperate and tropical ecosystems [6-10]. However, it is not clear how the ersity of available refugia interacts with in idual predator-prey relationships to explain emergent properties at the community scale. Furthermore, we do not yet have the ability to predict how habitat loss might affect the productivity of whole reef communities and the fisheries they support. Using data from an unfished reserve in The Bahamas, we find that structural complexity is associated not only with increased fish biomass and abundance, but also with nonlinearities in the size spectra of fish, implying disproportionately high abundances of certain size classes. By developing a size spectrum food web model that links the vulnerability of prey to predation with the structural complexity of a reef, we show that these nonlinearities can be explained by size-structured prey refugia that reduce mortality rates and alter growth rates in different parts of the size spectrum. Fitting the model with data from a structurally complex habitat, we predict that a loss of complexity could cause more than a 3-fold reduction in fishery productivity.
Operationalizing resilience for adaptive coral reef management under global environmental change
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-09-2014
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.12700
Abstract: Cumulative pressures from global climate and ocean change combined with multiple regional and local‐scale stressors pose fundamental challenges to coral reef managers worldwide. Understanding how cumulative stressors affect coral reef vulnerability is critical for successful reef conservation now and in the future. In this review, we present the case that strategically managing for increased ecological resilience (capacity for stress resistance and recovery) can reduce coral reef vulnerability (risk of net decline) up to a point. Specifically, we propose an operational framework for identifying effective management levers to enhance resilience and support management decisions that reduce reef vulnerability. Building on a system understanding of biological and ecological processes that drive resilience of coral reefs in different environmental and socio‐economic settings, we present an Adaptive Resilience‐Based management ( ARBM ) framework and suggest a set of guidelines for how and where resilience can be enhanced via management interventions. We argue that press‐type stressors (pollution, sedimentation, overfishing, ocean warming and acidification) are key threats to coral reef resilience by affecting processes underpinning resistance and recovery, while pulse‐type (acute) stressors (e.g. storms, bleaching events, crown‐of‐thorns starfish outbreaks) increase the demand for resilience. We apply the framework to a set of ex le problems for Caribbean and Indo‐Pacific reefs. A combined strategy of active risk reduction and resilience support is needed, informed by key management objectives, knowledge of reef ecosystem processes and consideration of environmental and social drivers. As climate change and ocean acidification erode the resilience and increase the vulnerability of coral reefs globally, successful adaptive management of coral reefs will become increasingly difficult. Given limited resources, on‐the‐ground solutions are likely to focus increasingly on actions that support resilience at finer spatial scales, and that are tightly linked to ecosystem goods and services.
Can a thermally tolerant symbiont improve the future of C aribbean coral reefs?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-10-2012
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.12027
Abstract: The detrimental effect of climate change induced bleaching on Caribbean coral reefs has been widely documented in recent decades. Several studies have suggested that increases in the abundance of thermally tolerant endosymbionts may ameliorate the effect of climate change on reefs. Symbionts that confer tolerance to temperature also reduce the growth rate of their coral host. Here, we show, using a spatial ecosystem model, that an increment in the abundance of a thermally tolerant endosymbiont (D1a) is unlikely to ensure the persistence of Caribbean reefs, or to reduce their rate of decline, due to the concomitant reduction in growth rate under current thermal stress predictive scenarios. Furthermore, our results suggest that given the documented vital rates of D1a-dominated corals, increasing dominance of D1a in coral hosts may have a detrimental effect by reducing the resilience of Caribbean reefs, and preventing their long-term recovery. This is because Caribbean ecosystems appear to be highly sensitive to changes in the somatic growth rate of corals. Alternative outcomes might be expected in systems with different community-level dynamics such as reefs in the Indo-Pacific, where the ecological costs of reduced growth rate might be far smaller.
Cumulative impacts across Australia’s Great Barrier Reef: a mechanistic evaluation
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-12-2021
DOI: 10.1002/ECM.1494
Abstract: Cumulative impacts assessments on marine ecosystems have been hindered by the difficulty of collecting environmental data and identifying drivers of community dynamics beyond local scales. On coral reefs, an additional challenge is to disentangle the relative influence of multiple drivers that operate at different stages of coral ontogeny. We integrated coral life history, population dynamics, and spatially explicit environmental drivers to assess the relative and cumulative impacts of multiple stressors across 2,300 km of the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Using literature data, we characterized relationships between coral life history processes (reproduction, larval dispersal, recruitment, growth, and mortality) and environmental variables. We then simulated coral demographics and stressor impacts at the organism (coral colony) level on ,800 in idual reefs linked by larval connectivity and exposed to temporally and spatially realistic regimes of acute (crown‐of‐thorns starfish outbreaks, cyclones, and mass coral bleaching) and chronic (water‐quality) stressors. Model simulations produced a credible reconstruction of recent (2008–2020) coral trajectories consistent with monitoring observations, while estimating the impacts of each stressor at reef and regional scales. Overall, simulated coral populations declined by one‐third across the GBR, from an average of ~29% to ~19% hard coral cover. By 2020, % of the GBR had coral cover higher than 30%, a status of reef health corroborated by scarce and sparsely distributed monitoring data. Reef‐wide annual rates of coral mortality were driven by bleaching (48%) ahead of cyclones (41%) and starfish predation (11%). Beyond the reconstructed status and trends, the model enabled the emergence of complex interactions that compound the effects of multiple stressors while promoting a mechanistic understanding of coral cover dynamics. Drivers of coral cover growth were identified notably, water quality (suspended sediments) was estimated to delay recovery for at least 25% of inshore reefs. Standardized rates of coral loss and recovery allowed the integration of all cumulative impacts to determine the equilibrium cover for each reef. This metric, combined with maps of impacts, recovery potential, water‐quality thresholds, and reef state metrics, facilitates strategic spatial planning and resilience‐based management across the GBR.
Larval dispersal and movement patterns of coral reef fishes, and implications for marine reserve network design
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-11-2015
DOI: 10.1111/BRV.12155
Abstract: Well-designed and effectively managed networks of marine reserves can be effective tools for both fisheries management and bio ersity conservation. Connectivity, the demographic linking of local populations through the dispersal of in iduals as larvae, juveniles or adults, is a key ecological factor to consider in marine reserve design, since it has important implications for the persistence of metapopulations and their recovery from disturbance. For marine reserves to protect bio ersity and enhance populations of species in fished areas, they must be able to sustain focal species (particularly fishery species) within their boundaries, and be spaced such that they can function as mutually replenishing networks whilst providing recruitment subsidies to fished areas. Thus the configuration (size, spacing and location) of in idual reserves within a network should be informed by larval dispersal and movement patterns of the species for which protection is required. In the past, empirical data regarding larval dispersal and movement patterns of adults and juveniles of many tropical marine species have been unavailable or inaccessible to practitioners responsible for marine reserve design. Recent empirical studies using new technologies have also provided fresh insights into movement patterns of many species and redefined our understanding of connectivity among populations through larval dispersal. Our review of movement patterns of 34 families (210 species) of coral reef fishes demonstrates that movement patterns (home ranges, ontogenetic shifts and spawning migrations) vary among and within species, and are influenced by a range of factors (e.g. size, sex, behaviour, density, habitat characteristics, season, tide and time of day). Some species move <0.1-0.5 km (e.g. damselfishes, butterflyfishes and angelfishes), <0.5-3 km (e.g. most parrotfishes, goatfishes and surgeonfishes) or 3-10 km (e.g. large parrotfishes and wrasses), while others move tens to hundreds (e.g. some groupers, emperors, snappers and jacks) or thousands of kilometres (e.g. some sharks and tuna). Larval dispersal distances tend to be <5-15 km, and self-recruitment is common. Synthesising this information allows us, for the first time, to provide species, specific advice on the size, spacing and location of marine reserves in tropical marine ecosystems to maximise benefits for conservation and fisheries management for a range of taxa. We recommend that: (i) marine reserves should be more than twice the size of the home range of focal species (in all directions), thus marine reserves of various sizes will be required depending on which species require protection, how far they move, and if other effective protection is in place outside reserves (ii) reserve spacing should be <15 km, with smaller reserves spaced more closely and (iii) marine reserves should include habitats that are critical to the life history of focal species (e.g. home ranges, nursery grounds, migration corridors and spawning aggregations), and be located to accommodate movement patterns among these. We also provide practical advice for practitioners on how to use this information to design, evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of marine reserve networks within broader ecological, socioeconomic and management contexts.
Connectivity and systemic resilience of the Great Barrier Reef
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 28-11-2017
Coral rubble dynamics in the Anthropocene and implications for reef recovery
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-12-2022
DOI: 10.1002/LNO.12254
Abstract: With rubble predicted to increase on coral reefs worldwide, we review the physical, biological, and ecological dynamics of rubble beds, with a focus on how rubble generation, mobilization, binding, and coral recruitment is expected to change on future reefs. Major disturbances, including storms and coral bleaching, are predicted to increase in intensity and frequency, and—like localized impacts including blast fishing and ship groundings—generate large quantities of coral rubble. Reefs will have increasingly smaller recovery windows between successive disturbances, leading to persistence of unstable rubble beds on reefs. With more severe storms and increased bioerosion on future reefs, rubble mobilization thresholds will be met more often as smaller, less complex rubble pieces are generated. If rubble remains stable for adequate time, it can be bound by organisms including sponges and coralline algae, and eventually be cemented. However, increasing rubble mobilization frequencies will reduce the time available for binding, while changing ocean chemistry could reduce the efficacy of calcifying binders. Ultimately, increased rubble cover will negatively impact coral recruitment into rubble beds. Rubble mobilization abrades and smothers corals, and rubble beds typically experience altered environmental and ecological conditions to the coral frameworks that precede them. Several knowledge gaps exist in relation to improved rubble mobilization thresholds, binding rates and strengths, and coral survival in varying rubble bed types and hydrodynamic regimes. Addressing these knowledge gaps will improve our ability to predict the recovery trajectory of rubble beds and assess the need for stabilization interventions.
Fisheries productivity under progressive coral reef degradation
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-12-2017
Protection of functionally important parrotfishes increases their biomass but fails to deliver enhanced recruitment
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 02-03-2015
DOI: 10.3354/MEPS11134
Spatial Patterns of Parrotfish Corallivory in the Caribbean: The Importance of Coral Taxa, Density and Size
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 27-12-2011
Linking demographic processes of juvenile corals to benthic recovery trajectories in two common reef habitats
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 26-05-2015
Coral reef habitat mapping: A combination of object-based image analysis and ecological modelling
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2018
Cryptic diversity in the macroalgal genus Lobophora (Dictyotales) reveals environmental drivers of algal assemblages
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 23-11-2020
Related Organisations
University Of Sheffield
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
University Of Liverpool
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
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