Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Andreas Dietzel, Sean R. Connolly, Terry P. Hughes, Michael Bode
Summary: This study found that recent mass coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef have larger and more continuous spatial footprints than previous bleaching events, posing an unprecedented threat to coral species resilience. In contrast to the impacts of a severe tropical cyclone, the bleaching events isolated severely affected reefs from the nearest mildly affected reefs by greater distances, highlighting the significant threat to coral species posed by the spatial footprint of these recent bleaching events.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
James P. Gilmour, Kylie L. Cook, Nicole M. Ryan, Marjetta L. Puotinen, Rebecca H. Green, Andrew J. Heyward
Summary: Coral reefs are facing severe threats from chronic local pressures and climate change, particularly rising ocean temperatures and bleaching. By comparing the dynamics of two adjacent reef systems, we find that coral bleaching can have irreversible impacts on coral reefs. The dynamics of reef systems are driven by local environment, exposure to disturbances, and coral life history traits. Applying knowledge of community dynamics at local scales can aid management strategies to slow the degradation of coral reefs.
ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
(2022)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Jeneen Hadj-Hammou, David Mouillot, Nicholas A. J. Graham
Summary: The response-and-effect framework is a trait-based approach that aims to analyze the mechanistic links between ecosystem disturbances, species' traits, and ecosystem processes. A review of coral reef fish traits literature shows a focus on linking response traits to disturbances, with fewer studies connecting effect traits to ecosystem processes. Size and diet of fish are identified as common traits in the literature, crucial for understanding both disturbance and process in ecosystems.
FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
(2021)
Review
Biodiversity Conservation
Miriam Reverter, Stephanie B. Helber, Sven Rohde, Jasper M. de Goeij, Peter J. Schupp
Summary: Non-random community changes are becoming more frequent in many ecosystems, with coral reefs experiencing shifts towards communities dominated by other than hard corals. Despite the existence of various alternative communities, knowledge remains scattered on the global diversity and functioning of alternative coral reef benthic communities.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Cameron Do, Georgia Elizabeth Saunders, Yuriy Kuleshov
Summary: This study attempts to expand the methodology of tropical cyclone risk assessment by focusing on coral reefs and to understand the risk to Australia's natural environment. The study found that the northern Ningaloo Reef and southern Great Barrier Reef regions had the highest risk values. However, the limitations in data quality mean that these results are only estimates at best.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Henry A. Bartelet, Michele L. Barnes, Graeme S. Cumming
Summary: Coral reefs are heavily impacted by climate-induced disturbances, and the loss of coral reefs has a significant effect on people who rely on the ecosystem services they provide. However, the impacts of coral loss and the ability of individuals and businesses to adapt to it are not well understood, especially in the private sector. To address this gap, a survey was conducted among Australian reef tourism operators to understand their responses to severe bleaching and cyclone impacts. The results highlight the importance of response diversity, spatial heterogeneity, and learning for social-ecological resilience.
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Felipe Carvalho, Leandro Castello, Beatrice Ferreira, Gavin McDonald, Michael Power
Summary: Our research explored how different fishing gears select for distinct functional traits of fish assemblages within different habitat types. Gears used in reef habitats showed high selectivity for sedentary and benthic species that form small schools, while gears used in coastal lagoons selected highly mobile, pelagic species that form large schools. There was low competitive interaction between gear types, with direct associations between gears and fish functional traits, highlighting the need for further research to understand global patterns of trait selectivity by gear type.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Sara E. Cannon, Simon D. Donner, Angela Liu, Pedro Gonzalez C. Espinosa, Andrew H. Baird, Julia K. Baum, Andrew G. Bauman, Maria Beger, Cassandra E. Benkwitt, Matthew J. Birt, Yannick Chancerelle, Joshua E. Cinner, Nicole L. Crane, Vianney Denis, Martial Depczynski, Nur Fadli, Douglas Fenner, Christopher J. Fulton, Yimnang Golbuu, Nicholas A. J. Graham, James Guest, Hugo B. Harrison, Jean-Paul A. Hobbs, Andrew S. Hoey, Thomas H. Holmes, Peter Houk, Fraser A. Januchowski-Hartley, Jamaluddin Jompa, Chao-Yang Kuo, Gino Valentino Limmon, Yuting V. Lin, Timothy R. McClanahan, Dominic Muenzel, Michelle J. Paddack, Serge Planes, Morgan S. Pratchett, Ben Radford, James Davis Reimer, Zoe T. Richards, Claire L. Ross, John Rulmal, Brigitte Sommer, Gareth J. Williams, Shaun K. Wilson
Summary: Scientists and managers often assume a positive relationship between local human disturbance and macroalgae on coral reefs, but this study finds that specific macroalgae taxa may respond differently to human disturbance. By examining genus-level monitoring data, the study reveals that no genera were positively correlated with all human disturbance metrics, highlighting the need to consider specific algae divisions or genera in assessments. The convention of using macroalgae percent cover as an indicator of local human disturbance may overlook important signatures of anthropogenic threats to reefs.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Jeanne Bloomberg, Daniel M. Holstein
Summary: As shallow coral populations decline globally, mesophotic coral ecosystems are proposed as potential refugia for coral species. The study assesses the refuge potential of mesophotic reefs in the US Virgin Islands for Montastraea cavernosa, with deeper coral experiencing slightly lower reproductive potential. Changes in coral cover and sex ratios primarily drive variations in oocyte production over depth, with mesophotic reefs playing a key role in providing oocytes despite lower proportion of females. The persistence of mesophotic reefs as reproductive refuges is questioned due to disease perturbations affecting deeper reefs.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Carolina Castro-Sanguino, Juan Carlos Ortiz, Angus Thompson, Nicholas H. Wolff, Renata Ferrari, Barbara Robson, Marites M. Magno-Canto, Marji Puotinen, Katharina E. Fabricius, Sven Uthicke
Summary: This study investigates the impacts of multiple stressors on coral cover and performance in the Central and Southern Great Barrier Reef, finding that water quality metrics are better predictors of performance than state. Additionally, the response of different coral groups to stressors varies, highlighting the need to evaluate performance metrics to prioritize local management interventions.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2021)
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
G. William M. Harrison, Nadia Santodomingo, Kenneth G. Johnson, Willem Renema
Summary: In this study, the lower occurrence of Pliocene reefs, referred to as the Pliocene Reef Gap, was discovered. While some factors leading to this decline are similar to those causing Anthropocene reef decline, neither warming nor increasing pCO2 are among them.
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
Fisheries
R. C. Babcock, D. P. Thomson, M. D. E. Haywood, M. A. Vanderklift, R. Pillans, W. A. Rochester, M. Miller, C. W. Speed, G. Shedrawi, S. Field, R. Evans, J. Stoddart, T. J. Hurley, A. Thompson, J. Gilmour, M. Depczynski
Summary: Research indicates that coral reefs in the western Australian waters have experienced severe coral bleaching and declining coral cover over the past few decades, potentially facing more frequent marine heatwaves and coral mortality events.
MARINE AND FRESHWATER RESEARCH
(2021)
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
Ecology
Anna Cresswell, Michael Renton, Tim Langlois, Damian Thomson, Jasmine Lynn, Joachim Claudet
Summary: This study investigates the interplay between resistance and recovery on coral reefs and dependence on pre- and post-disturbance states. It also identifies a chronic decline in coral cover. The results highlight non-linearities and recovery lags in the recovery process.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Mike McWilliam, Maria Dornelas, Mariana Alvarez-Noriega, Andrew H. Baird, Sean R. Connolly, Joshua S. Madin
Summary: Life-history traits are useful in predicting species commonness and rarity, but species with similar traits can still have significant differences in abundance. Understanding the combined effects of multiple traits on population dynamics is crucial for predicting species commonness and rarity.
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Saul Gonzalez-Murcia, Merrick Ekins, Tom C. L. Bridge, Christopher N. Battershill, Geoffrey P. Jones
Summary: Substratum preferences and contact interactions among sessile organisms play a crucial role in shaping the structure of benthic communities on coral reefs. This study investigated the substratum preferences and interactions of sponges in coastal coral reefs, revealing their high association with dead coral, coral rubble, and calcium carbonate rock. The most frequent interactions were observed with algae, corals, and crustose coralline algae, with sponges often overgrowing their spatial competitors. Our findings highlight the importance of substratum preferences and interactions in influencing community dynamics on coral reefs.
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Cher F. Y. Chow, Caitlin Bolton, Nader Boutros, Viviana Brambilla, Luisa Fontoura, Andrew S. S. Hoey, Joshua S. S. Madin, Oscar Pizarro, Damaris Torres-Pulliza, Rachael M. M. Woods, Kyle J. A. Zawada, Miguel Barbosa, Maria Dornelas
Summary: The process of coral recruitment is crucial to coral reef ecosystems. Fish can mediate this process by removing benthic competitors, but their foraging impacts can be either facilitative or harmful to coral recruits. Coral settlement and recruitment exhibit a negative relationship with foraging trait diversity, especially with trait divergence and richness in settlement. Our findings provide further evidence that fish play a role in making benthic habitats more conducive for coral settlement and recruitment, and fish biodiversity variation likely contributes to uneven patterns of coral recruitment and reef recovery.
Article
Ecology
Joshua S. S. Madin, Mollie Asbury, Nina Schiettekatte, Maria Dornelas, Oscar Pizarro, Jessica Reichert, Damaris Torres-Pulliza
Summary: In their recent synopsis, Loke and Chisholm (Ecology Letters, 25, 2269-2288, 2022) provide an overview of habitat complexity metrics for ecologists and offer some suggestions. However, we disagree with some of their analyses and opinions in this technical note.
Article
Ecology
Amelia Penny, Maria Dornelas, Anne Magurran
Summary: The composition of ecological assemblages has been rapidly changing in the past century. We developed a quantitative framework to compare the temporal trajectories of this compositional reorganization and applied it to bird and marine fish datasets. The number of changes away from the baseline was found to be a consistent correlate of the overall rate of change, but both fish and birds showed large unreversed changes and time series with accelerating compositional change.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Tadhg Carroll, Francoise Cardou, Maria Dornelas, Chris D. D. Thomas, Mark Vellend
Summary: Compositional change is a common response of ecological communities to environmental change. While it is often seen as a decline in biotic integrity, adaptive compositional change is a fundamental concept in evolutionary biology, allowing populations to persist as the environment changes.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)
Review
Biology
Maria Dornelas, Jonathan M. Chase, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Anne E. Magurran, Brian J. McGill, Laura H. Antao, Shane A. Blowes, Gergana N. Daskalova, Brian Leung, Ines S. Martins, Faye Moyes, Isla H. Myers-Smith, Chris D. Thomas, Mark Vellend
Summary: Estimating biodiversity change is a critical challenge in the context of human modification. This review examines how biodiversity has changed across scales and taxonomic groups, focusing on species richness, temporal turnover, spatial beta-diversity, and abundance. The findings show mixed patterns of both increases and declines in local scales, with higher prevalence of declining trends in beta-diversity and abundance. At the global scale, extinction rates are likely surpassing speciation rates, although both are elevated. Reducing blind spots in understanding biodiversity change is essential for effective management.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Biology
Alessandra R. R. Kortz, Faye Moyes, Vania R. Pivello, Petr Pysek, Maria Dornelas, Piero Visconti, Anne E. E. Magurran
Summary: Alien species are often associated with changes in biodiversity, but their impact on the reshaping of ecological communities is not well understood. In this study, we used the BioTIME database to examine the relationship between alien species and compositional change in vascular plant assemblages. We found that, although rare, the presence of alien species was linked to increased rates of compositional turnover. This suggests that alien species play a role in driving rapid changes in ecological communities.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Anne Chao, Simon Thorn, Chun-Huo Chiu, Faye Moyes, Kai-Hsiang Hu, Robin L. Chazdon, Jessie Wu, Luiz Fernando S. Magnago, Maria Dornelas, David Zeleny, Robert K. Colwell, Anne E. Magurran
Summary: In this study, we propose a rigorous standardization method to measure and compare beta diversity across datasets based on sampling data. Our approach is built upon the assumption of a statistical sampling model, treating the sampling data as a representative sample from an assemblage. We introduce the concept of standardized, coverage-based beta diversity by standardizing alpha and gamma diversity at the same level of sample coverage. Our extension of the iNEXT method to beta diversity ensures the removal of the dependence on gamma and alpha values, allowing us to quantify the pure among-assemblage differentiation. The proposed standardization is demonstrated with various spatial, temporal, and spatiotemporal datasets.
ECOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Jansen Smith, Marina C. C. Rillo, Adam T. Kocsis, Maria Dornelas, David Fastovich, Huai-Hsuan M. Huang, Lukas Jonkers, Wolfgang Kiessling, Qijian Li, Lee Hsiang Liow, Miranda Margulis-Ohnuma, Stephen Meyers, Lin Na, Amelia M. M. Penny, Kate Pippenger, Johan Renaudie, Erin E. E. Saupe, Manuel J. J. Steinbauer, Mauro Sugawara, Adam Tomasovych, John W. W. Williams, Moriaki Yasuhara, Seth Finnegan, Pincelli M. M. Hull
Summary: BioDeepTime is a database that collects time series data of terrestrial and aquatic community compositions, facilitating research on community dynamics and responses to environmental perturbations. It includes time series data from various spatial and temporal scales, ranging from present-day to millions of years ago, covering diverse taxa and measurement variables.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Jeremy Horowitz, Andrea M. Quattrini, Mercer R. Brugler, David J. Miller, Kristina Pahang, Tom C. L. Bridge, Peter F. Cowman
Summary: This study reconstructs the evolutionary history of black corals and reveals their diversification process in the deep sea. The findings indicate that black corals first appeared in the early Silurian period and later adapted to both continental shelf and abyssal habitats. This research has significant implications for the conservation of anthozoan lineages.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
V. H. F. Neo, J. Zinke, T. Fung, C. J. Merchant, K. J. A. Zawada, H. Krawczyk, J. M. Maina
Summary: Coral reefs are at risk of accelerated decline due to climate change-induced changes, and it is uncertain if the Sea Surface Temperature data used for coral reef studies are consistent among different data products. Understanding the consistency among different SST data sources can help improve monitoring and understanding of the impact of global warming on coral reefs. The study compares four types of SST data and highlights the need to compare existing indicators of thermal stress from different data sets. Rating: 8/10
EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Kate J. Brandis, Phoebe Meagher, Sabine Schoppe, Kyle Zawada, Indira Widmann, Peter Widmann, Roger G. Dolorosa, Roxane Francis
Summary: The illegal wildlife trade poses a significant threat to biodiversity, and knowing the geographic origin of traded animals or animal parts is crucial for combating this trade. By using a portable X-ray fluorescence device, we have developed a novel method for determining the source of traded animals, providing a valuable tool for enforcement and conservation efforts.
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Erika Gress, Tom C. Bridge, Justin Fyfe, Gemma Galbraith
Summary: Herbivorous fishes play important roles in coral reef ecosystems, and their interactions with corals may have implications for coral health.
OCEANS-SWITZERLAND
(2023)