Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Elizabeth C. Shaver, Elizabeth McLeod, Margaux Y. Hein, Stephen R. Palumbi, Kate Quigley, Tali Vardi, Peter J. Mumby, David Smith, Phanor Montoya-Maya, Erinn M. Muller, Anastazia T. Banaszak, Ian M. McLeod, David Wachenfeld
Summary: Recent warm temperatures caused by climate change have led to coral bleaching and mortality worldwide. As a result, restoration has been embraced as a strategy to sustain coral reefs. However, few restoration programs are incorporating climate change and resilience into project design. This article provides recommendations for integrating resilience principles into restoration design and practice, to enhance coral reef recovery, resistance, and adaptation.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Marie E. Strader, Kate M. Quigley
Summary: This study assesses the impact of symbiosis and gene expression plasticity on the heat stress responses of corals. The findings reveal that heat-evolved symbionts contribute to the survival of coral juveniles under high temperature conditions, and the coral response to heat is correlated with the genus of symbionts.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jamison M. Gove, Gareth J. Williams, Joey Lecky, Eric Brown, Eric Conklin, Chelsie Counsell, Gerald Davis, Mary K. Donovan, Kim Falinski, Lindsey Kramer, Kelly Kozar, Ning Li, Jeffrey A. Maynard, Amanda McCutcheon, Sheila A. McKenna, Brian J. Neilson, Aryan Safaie, Christopher Teague, Robert Whittier, Gregory P. Asner
Summary: This study demonstrates that reducing local human impacts can enhance the resilience and recovery of coral reefs to bleaching events. Integrated land-sea management can effectively protect coastal marine ecosystems and provide the best opportunity for coral reefs to persist in a changing climate.
Article
Oceanography
Marcelo Soares, Sergio Rossi, Anne Gurgel, Caroline Lucas, Tallita Tavares, Beatriz Diniz, Caroline Feitosa, Emanuelle Rabelo, Pedro Pereira, Ruy de Kikuchi, Zelinda Leao, Igor Cruz, Pedro de Macedo Carneiro, Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip
Summary: The peculiar shallow-water reefs of the Tropical Southwestern Atlantic Ocean grow in suboptimal conditions and face pressures from natural and anthropogenic impacts, especially with worsening climate change. Bleaching events and human activities have severely affected these coral reefs, exacerbating species-specific negative impacts.
OCEAN & COASTAL MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Biology
Michael P. Lesser
Summary: Coral reefs are facing extreme environmental pressure from climate change and eutrophication. Changes in nutrient balance may increase coral mortality, while eutrophication can lead to shifts in coral reefs dominated by macroalgae. The effects of eutrophication are compounded by the presence of chemical pollutants, making it difficult to separate their impact from that of climate change on coral reefs.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ahmed Eladawy, Takashi Nakamura, Mohamed Shaltout, Asmaa Mohammed, Kazuo Nadaoka, Michael D. Fox, Eslam O. Osman
Summary: Corals in the northern Red Sea exhibit high thermal tolerance, likely due to lower water temperatures. Bleaching patterns across the Red Sea are independent of the local maximum monthly mean of seawater temperature.
FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
(2022)
Review
Environmental Sciences
T. R. McClanahan
Summary: This article provides a brief historical narrative of coral responses to climate change exposures, followed by a review of evidence from multiple-site field studies. The findings reveal that environmental variables, especially excess thermal exposure, play a crucial role in coral bleaching and mortality response. Two categories of investigations, focused on excess thermal stress thresholds (TM) or continuous variables (VM), were identified, with TM investigations receiving more citations and being used to identify future climate change impacts and sanctuaries. The study emphasizes the importance of considering additive and interactive mechanisms of causation in coral responses to exposure. Additionally, it points out that some important variables for predicting coral responses have been seldom studied or modeled. The future status and health of coral reefs is expected to be better than predicted by TM investigations.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Tim Rice McClanahan, Maxwell Kodia Azali
Summary: Current coral reef future models rely on threshold (TM) and multivariate environmental variability models (VM), with VM based on General Additive Model showing more accurate predictions for coral cover by considering significant environmental and fisheries management variables and determining that common predictive variables are weak or not significant predictors of coral cover. By comparing the predictions of the two models for future coral cover, it was found that the VM is more accurate than the TM in predicting coral cover in 2050.
FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
(2021)
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
Biodiversity Conservation
Pedro C. Gonzalez-Espinosa, Simon D. Donner
Summary: The study shows that cloudiness has an inverse correlation with coral bleaching severity caused by heat stress, with higher cloudiness implying a reduced bleaching response. By incorporating cloudiness into prediction models, it is possible to more accurately predict the severity of coral bleaching and identify reefs that may be more resilient to climate change.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biology
Adriana Humanes, Liam Lachs, Elizabeth A. Beauchamp, John C. Bythell, Alasdair J. Edwards, Yimnang Golbuu, Helios M. Martinez, Pawel Palmowski, Achim Treumann, Eveline van der Steeg, Ruben van Hooidonk, James R. Guest
Summary: Coral reefs are facing unprecedented mass bleaching and mortality events due to marine heatwaves and climate change. Individual variation in heat tolerance suggests potential for coral adaptation. By exposing corals to experimental heatwaves, researchers found that the most-tolerant corals required double the heat stress dosage compared to the least-tolerant corals to induce bleaching. Under an ambitious emissions scenario, these differences in coral heat tolerance thresholds may delay the onset of annual bleaching and mortality conditions by up to 17 years. However, this delay is limited to only 10 years under a high emissions scenario. The results highlight the substantial variability in coral heat tolerance and the need for coral adaptation and ambitious emissions reductions.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Katie L. Barott, Ariana S. Huffmyer, Jennifer M. Davidson, Elizabeth A. Lenz, Shayle B. Matsuda, Joshua R. Hancock, Teegan Innis, Crawford Drury, Hollie M. Putnam, Ruth D. Gates
Summary: Urgent action is needed to prevent coral reef demise due to climate crisis. Propagating climate change-resistant corals to restore degraded reefs is promising, as demonstrated in a study showing no alteration in coral heat stress response after transplantation. Growth was found to be highly plastic, with coral metabolic rates and fitness increasing in reefs with higher flow and salinity, indicating acclimatization within just 3 months. Outplanting bleaching-resistant corals is a promising tool for elevating the resistance of coral populations to ocean warming.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Shreya Yadav, Ty N. F. Roach, Michael J. J. McWilliam, Carlo Caruso, Mariana Rocha de Souza, Catherine Foley, Corinne Allen, Jenna Dilworth, Joel Huckeba, Erika P. P. Santoro, Renee Wold, Jacquelyn Simpson, Spencer Miller, Joshua R. R. Hancock, Crawford Drury, Joshua S. S. Madin
Summary: This study used structure-from-motion photogrammetry to track coral bleaching, mortality, and changes in community composition during the 2019 marine heatwave in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. The results showed that spatial and taxonomic heterogeneity in coral bleaching and mortality were influenced by environmental variation, habitat complexity, and differences in assemblage composition.
FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Gonzalo Perez-Rosales, Heloise Rouze, Gergely Torda, Pim Bongaerts, Michel Pichon, Valeriano Parravicini, Laetitia Hedouin
Summary: The study showed that the probability of coral bleaching decreases with depth, especially in lower mesophotic depths of 60 meters or more where little to no bleaching was observed. Corals vary in their sensitivity to depth, with depth-generalist corals benefiting more from increasing depth compared to depth-specialists. The reduction of bleaching with depth was found to be more related to light-irradiance attenuation than temperature.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Shannon G. Klein, Nathan R. Geraldi, Andrea Anton, Sebastian Schmidt-Roach, Maren Ziegler, Maha J. Cziesielski, Cecilia Martin, Nils Radecker, Thomas L. Frolicher, Peter J. Mumby, John M. Pandolfi, David J. Suggett, Christian R. Voolstra, Manuel Aranda, Carlos M. Duarte
Summary: Research projected future impacts of marine heatwaves and ocean acidification on coral reefs, showing that OA may have minor effects on moderating coral responses to intensifying MHWs but could still lead to decreases in photosynthesis and survival. Rapid adaptation or acclimatization of corals to projected ocean conditions is crucial for their survival, especially under low emissions scenarios and increased reef management efforts to enhance resilience.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Atefeh Zendehboudi, Azam Mohammadi, Sina Dobaradaran, Gabriel E. De-la-Torre, Bahman Ramavandi, Seyed Enayat Hashemi, Reza Saeedi, Emran Moradpour Tayebi, Ahmad Vafaee, Amirhossein Darabi
Summary: This study investigated the characteristics and ecological risks of microplastics (MPs) in ballast water for the first time, and found high levels of MP pollution. These findings contribute to our understanding of the sources and risks of microplastics in marine ecosystems.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Rose Boahemaa Pinto, Linda Bogerd, Martine van der Ploeg, Kwame Duah, Remko Uijlenhoet, Tim H. M. van Emmerik
Summary: Catchment-scale plastic pollution assessments provide insights into the sources, sinks, and pathways of plastic pollution. We propose an approach to quantify macroplastic transport and density in the Odaw catchment, Ghana, and find that the urban riverine zone has the highest transport, while the urban tidal zone has the highest riverbank and land macroplastic density.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Aliya Baidourela, Qian Sun, Gongxin Yang, Umut Halik, Zhongkai Dong, Kaixu Cai, Guili Sun, Wenya Zhang, Sisi Cheng
Summary: The study focused on heavy metal pollution in the green vegetation of a suburban industrial area in Tuokexun County, Xinjiang, China. The results showed that the overall level of heavy metal pollution in the soil was minor, with mercury (Hg) being the most severe contamination, likely caused by human activities. The composition of heavy metal elements in trees was more stable compared to grass and shrubs, with varying concentrations across different vegetation. Shrubbery was found to be the most effective in heavy metal restoration, and there were disparities in heavy metal enrichment among different vegetation types.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
James H. Bridson, Hayden Masterton, Beatrix Theobald, Regis Risani, Fraser Doake, Jessica A. Wallbank, Stefan D. M. Maday, Gavin Lear, Robert Abbel, Dawn A. Smith, Joanne M. Kingsbury, Olga Pantos, Grant L. Northcott, Sally Gaw
Summary: Plastic pollution has significant environmental impacts, largely due to chemical additives. However, the behavior of plastic additives in marine environments is not well understood. A marine deployment experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of weathering on the extractables profile of four types of plastics in New Zealand over a period of nine months. The concentration of additives in polyethylene and oxo-degradable polyethylene was strongly influenced by artificial weathering, while polyamide 6 and polyethylene terephthalate showed minimal change. These findings emphasize the importance of considering leaching and weathering effects on plastic composition when assessing the potential impact and risk of plastic pollution in receiving environments.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Alan G. Scarlett, Francis D. Spilsbury, Steven J. Rowland, Marthe Monique Gagnon, Kliti Grice
Summary: This study used diamondoid hydrocarbon distributions to identify the sources of environmental oil contamination. A suite of 20 diamondoids was found to accumulate in fish adipose tissue. The scatter plots of indices between fish and exposure oils showed a close to ideal 1:1 relationship, which can be used to determine the origin of the oil.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Shan Jiang, Mengmeng Wan, Kun Lin, Yanshan Chen, Rui Wang, Liju Tan, Jiangtao Wang
Summary: In this study, the concentration, composition, distribution, and sources of PCBs in surface seawater of the Bohai Bay were analyzed. The results showed that PCBs in the Bohai Bay had high concentrations and were primarily derived from land-based sources such as port activities and river inputs. The PCBs in the Bohai Bay may come from commercial PCBs and their incineration products, municipal landfills, wood and coal combustion, and industrial activities, etc.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Icaro S. A. Porto, Saulo V. A. Dantas, Caio S. A. Felix, Francisco A. S. Cunha, Jailson B. de Andrade, Sergio L. C. Ferreira
Summary: This study evaluated the risks of mercury levels in sardines consumed by low-income population in Salvador, Brazil. The results showed that the mercury content in the sampled sardines posed no risks to human health. This study is significant as most sardines in Salvador come from Todos os Santos Bay, which has a history of mercury contamination.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jiahui Chen, Chengyu Yuan, Guanqun Zhai, Guangcheng Chen, Heng Zhu, Jun Liu, Yong Ye
Summary: This study investigated the combined influences of species selection and site elevation on greenhouse gas fluxes from restored mangrove soils. The results suggest that Avicennia marina should be selected for mangrove restoration to minimize carbon release and reduce the influence of greenhouse gas fluxes on the global greenhouse effect.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Emmanuel Onyeabor, Uju Obuka
Summary: The Gulf of Guinea region in Africa is a significant area for coastal countries, playing a vital role in their economic and environmental development. This study aims to reduce marine plastic pollution in the region by utilizing legal instruments.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yuanli Liu, Stephan Luttjohann, Alvise Vianello, Claudia Lorenz, Fan Liu, Jes Vollertsen
Summary: Large area attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (LAATR-FTIR) is a novel technique for detecting small microplastics, with limited accuracy for large microplastics. However, it shows promise in homogeneous matrices. The spectra quality is comparable between transmission mode and LAATR mode.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Phuc T. D. Le, Andrew M. Fischer, Britta D. Hardesty, Heidi J. Auman, Chris Wilcox
Summary: This study explores the relationship between ocean currents and the accumulation of floating marine debris (FMD) and finds that higher concentrations of FMD are associated with frontal frequencies (FF). FMD is primarily trapped in accumulation zones between fronts and the coastline, which have high biodiversity value.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Rosa Sawan, Perine Doyen, Florence Viudes, Rachid Amara, Celine Mahfouz
Summary: Few studies have examined the impact of urbanization and meteorological events on microplastics discharged into the sea through rivers. Surface water samples were collected from two Lebanese rivers, with differing degrees of urbanization, during dry and wet periods. The results showed that the most industrialized river had a significantly higher abundance of microplastics compared to the less-industrialized river. There was also a correlation between particle contamination and the season at each site, with microplastic concentrations highest on the first day of the wet season. These findings highlight the importance of considering meteorological events in accurately assessing plastic pollution influx into coastal waters.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Katherine R. Shaw, Jonathan L. Whitney, Eileen M. Nalley, Madeline C. Schmidbauer, Megan J. Donahue, Jesse Black, Raquel N. Corniuk, Kellie Teague, Rachel Sandquist, Catherine Pirkle, Rachel Dacks, Max Sudnovsky, Jennifer M. Lynch
Summary: This study examines the ingestion of plastic in reef fish in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Plastic particles were found in the gastrointestinal tracts of multiple fish species. However, further analysis revealed that these particles were actually natural materials and posed no threat to human consumers.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Revati Hardikar, C. K. Haridevi, Shantaj Deshbhratar
Summary: This study investigated the variability in phytoplankton functional structure using a trait-based approach and explored the relationship between species traits and environmental factors, as well as their impact on ecosystem functioning. The results revealed that morphological traits, temperature, and ammonia played a decisive role in the seasonal succession of phytoplankton species. It was found that certain traits favored higher biomass production but might hinder energy transfer efficiency. The strong correlation between environmental variables and phytoplankton functional structure supports the practical implementation of a trait-based approach in studying phytoplankton community dynamics under different environmental conditions.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Engki A. Kisnarti, Nining Sari Ningsih, Mutiara R. Putri, Nani Hendiarti, Bernhard Mayer
Summary: This study examines the movement patterns of plastic marine debris in Indonesian waters, revealing that Indonesia contributes significantly to transboundary marine debris in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and the South China Sea. Most of the debris remains in Indonesian waters and moves back and forth due to the influence of monsoon currents.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2024)