Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Hillary A. Smith, Stella E. Fulton, Ian M. Mcleod, Cathie A. Page, David G. Bourne
Summary: Manual removal of macroalgae can promote the recovery of inshore coral reefs and improve the composition of benthic reef organisms.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Limnology
Tania M. M. Kenyon, Christopher Doropoulos, Kennedy Wolfe, Gregory E. E. Webb, Sophie Dove, Daniel Harris, Peter J. J. Mumby
Summary: This article reviews the dynamics of rubble beds on coral reefs, with a focus on the changes expected in the generation, mobilization, binding, and coral recruitment of rubble on future reefs. It predicts that major disturbances, such as storms and coral bleaching, will increase in intensity and frequency, leading to larger quantities of coral rubble. With smaller recovery windows and increased bioerosion, smaller and less complex rubble pieces will be generated more often. The time available for binding will be reduced, and changing ocean chemistry may affect the efficacy of binders. Ultimately, increased rubble cover will negatively impact coral recruitment into rubble beds.
LIMNOLOGY AND OCEANOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Anny Cardenas, Jean-Baptiste Raina, Claudia Pogoreutz, Nils Raedecker, Jeremy Bougoure, Paul Guagliardo, Mathieu Pernice, Christian R. Voolstra
Summary: The structure and function of the endolithic microbiome in corals are linked to bleaching susceptibility. Corals that are resistant to bleaching have endolithic microbiomes with greater functional diversity and redundancy, and lower endolithic primary productivity, possibly due to the dominance of chemolithotrophs. Lower primary production within the skeleton may help maintain nutrient-limiting conditions in the coral-algal symbiosis under heat stress.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
David J. Warne, Kerryn A. Crossman, Wang Jin, Kerrie Mengersen, Kate Osborne, Matthew J. Simpson, Angus A. Thompson, Paul Wu, Juan-C Ortiz
Summary: The world's coral reefs are facing threats due to climate change causing increased frequency and severity of acute thermal stress, as well as chronic pressures like rising sea surface temperature, overfishing, and declining water quality. Monitoring coral recovery dynamics is crucial for effective reef management. Detailed mechanistic models offer insight into reef recovery patterns, but monitoring on a colony scale is impractical for large reefs like the Great Barrier Reef.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Lauren T. Toth, Travis A. Courtney, Michael A. Colella, Rob R. Ruzicka
Summary: SCTLD has had an unprecedented impact on the western Atlantic coral-reef ecosystems, causing a decline in reef-accretion potential and altering the composition of coral assemblages. The loss of reef-building corals has significantly decreased carbonate production, leading to a decline in their capacity for growth.
FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Marine Gouezo, Katharina Fabricius, Peter Harrison, Yimnang Golbuu, Christopher Doropoulos
Summary: Researchers have proposed a framework to guide reef managers and scientists on how to best support coral reef recovery after disturbance. The framework includes two main stages: first, assessing disturbed reefs based on their social-ecological values and likelihood of recovery; second, choosing management actions based on ecological attributes of the disturbed reef, such as substrata rehabilitation, repopulating, resilience-based management, and monitoring.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jacob G. D. Rogers, Eva E. Plaganyi
Summary: This study uses multispecies modelling to show that the management of a coral predator, the crown-of-thorns starfish, could help corals recover following bleaching events. They show that management was most effective when heat stress severity for corals was low to moderate, when corals had lower heat sensitivity and when the recruitment rate of starfish was high.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Gabriela Athie, David Salas-Monreal, Arnoldo Valle-Levinson
Summary: One-year subinertial flow profiles and near-bottom temperatures were studied in a tropical coral reef in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. The study found that flow distributions in the reef were primarily influenced by wind stress, sea-level slopes, and baroclinic pressure gradient. The study also discovered that near-bottom summer intrusions of relative cold water were driven by baroclinicity, rather than Ekman dynamics. The findings revealed additional flow distributions compared to previous descriptions of the reefs in the southwestern continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico.
ESTUARINE COASTAL AND SHELF SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Timothy A. C. Lamont, Ben Williams, Lucille Chapuis, Mochyudho E. Prasetya, Marie J. Seraphim, Harry R. Harding, Eleanor B. May, Noel Janetski, Jamaluddin Jompa, David J. Smith, Andrew N. Radford, Stephen D. Simpson
Summary: The degradation of coral reefs worldwide has led to significant investments in their active restoration. Research shows that restoration efforts not only help increase coral cover but also play a vital role in restoring the soundscape of the reef ecosystem, which is essential for the recruitment of reef organisms. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) could be a valuable tool for evaluating ecosystem-level recovery, but caution is needed when choosing metrics and interpreting results as different PAM metrics may reflect different aspects of the reef soundscape.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Nicholas P. Jones, Rob R. Ruzicka, Mike A. Colella, Morgan S. Pratchett, David S. Gilliam
Summary: Acute disturbances and chronic pressures have significant and increasing impacts on coral reef community structure. This study reveals that high disturbance frequency and chronic anthropogenic pressures have led to sustained declines in stony corals and proliferation of macroalgae on Florida's Coral Reef. Even in locations with lower chronic pressure, recovery of stony corals is severely limited.
Article
Geology
Tara R. Clark, George Roff, Tess Chapman, Hannah Markham-Summers, Nicholas M. Hammerman, Faye Liu, Yuexing Feng, John M. Pandolfi, Jian-xin Zhao
Summary: The overall status of many reefs in the Great Barrier Reef is uncertain due to the lack of detailed broad-scale studies. The relative role of various threats in impacting individual reefs is generally unclear. A novel approach using uranium-thorium dating of dead corals was adopted to reconstruct historical disturbance events at Rib and Davies Reefs, providing a reliable benchmark to assess recovery and monitor coral communities effectively.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Lara Talavera, Ana Vila-Concejo, Jody M. Webster, Courtney Smith, Stephanie Duce, Thomas E. Fellowes, Tristan Salles, Daniel Harris, Jon Hill, Will Figueira, Jorg Hacker
Summary: Rubble islands are dynamic sedimentary features on reef platforms, providing valuable land for small island nations and critical habitat for species, but facing threats from climate change. The evolution of One Tree Island (OTI) is influenced by factors such as cyclone activity, El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phases, and mechanisms involving sediment transport and wave overtopping. Further research is needed to understand the future trajectory of OTI and other rubble islands under climate change scenarios.
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
James Cant, Roberto Salguero-Gomez, Maria Beger
Summary: Coral communities are under threat and there is a lack of understanding on the short-term dynamics of coral populations. Studying and predicting the characteristics and trajectories of coral populations in unstable environments is important for managing their resilience.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Sarah E. Leinbach, Kelly E. Speare, Ashley M. Rossin, Daniel M. Holstein, Marie E. Strader
Summary: Mass thermal bleaching events pose a primary threat to coral reefs, impacting energetics and reproduction. In a study on the French Polynesian island of Mo'orea, resistant and recovered coral colonies showed differences in energy reserves and reproductive potential following a severe bleaching event. Understanding these sublethal impacts is crucial for accurately predicting coral recovery rates and overall reef resilience post-disturbances.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Claudia Tatiana Galindo-Martinez, Michele Weber, Viridiana Avila-Magana, Susana Enriquez, Hiroaki Kitano, Monica Medina, Roberto Iglesias-Prieto
Summary: This study investigates the recovery of Caribbean coral after bleaching. The research found that high temperature stress caused coral bleaching, but only a fraction of the corals showed signs of recovery after the stress was removed, with endolithic algae playing an important role in the recovery process.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
