Bleaching, coral mortality and subsequent survivorship on a West Australian fringing reef

Depczynski, Martial; Gilmour, James; Ridgway, Tyrone; Barnes, H. S.; Heyward, Andrew; Holmes, TH; Moore, Jonathan D.; Radford, Ben; Thomson, Damian P.; Tinkler, Paul; Wilson, Shaun K.

doi:10.1007/s00338-012-0974-0

Cited by 108 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…= -13 %; p = 0.108, df = 21.26). A separate but contemporary study of Acropora pulchra at Coral Bay also showed marginal differences between winter and summer calcification rates (\15 % in 2011-2013), possibly due to the cumulative stress of two anomalously warm summers following an initially strong marine heat wave in 2011 (Depczynski et al 2013;Foster et al 2014). However, earlier measurements of net calcification in an Acroporadominated Ningaloo Reef community also showed minimal differences between winter and summer several years before the 2011 heat wave, possibly due to increased rates of particle feeding in winter Wyatt et al 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Resilience of coral calcification to extreme temperature variations in the Kimberley region, northwest Australia

et al. 2015

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We report seasonal changes in coral calcification within the highly dynamic intertidal and subtidal zones of Cygnet Bay (16.5°S, 123.0°E) in the Kimberley region of northwest Australia, where the tidal range can reach nearly 8 m and the temperature of nearshore waters ranges seasonally by *9°C from a minimum monthly mean of *22°C to a maximum of over 31°C. Corals growing within the more isolated intertidal sites experienced maximum temperatures of up to *35°C during spring low tides in addition to being routinely subjected to high levels of irradiance ([1500 lmol m -2 s -1 ) under near stagnant conditions. Mixed model analysis revealed a significant effect of tidal exposure on the growth of Acropora aspera, Dipsastraea favus, and Trachyphyllia geoffroyi (p B 0.04), as well as a significant effect of season on A. aspera and T. geoffroyi (p B 0.01, no effect on D. favus); however, the growth of both D. favus and T. geoffroyi appeared to be better suited to the warm summer conditions of the intertidal compared to A. aspera. Through an additional comparative study, we found that Acropora from Cygnet Bay calcified at a rate 69 % faster than a species from the same genus living in a backreef environment of a more typical tropical reef located 1200 km southwest of Cygnet Bay (0.59 ± 0.02 vs. 0.34 ± 0.02 g cm -2 yr -1 for A. muricata from Coral Bay, Ningaloo Reef; p \ 0.001, df = 28.9). The opposite behaviour was found for D. favus from the same environments, with colonies from Cygnet Bay calcifying at rates that were 33 % slower than the same species from Ningaloo Reef (0.29 ± 0.02 vs. 0.44 ± 0.03 g cm -2 yr -1 , p \ 0.001, df = 37.9). Our findings suggest that adaption and/or acclimatization of coral to the more thermally extreme environments at Cygnet Bay is strongly taxon dependent.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Resilience of coral calcification to extreme temperature variations in the Kimberley region, northwest Australia

et al. 2015

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“…This was best demonstrated by a historically unprecedented ''marine heat wave'' that formed along Ningaloo Reef and much of Western Australia in early 2011 due to particularly strong La Niñ a conditions across the Indo-Pacific (Feng et al 2013). The mass bleaching associated with this event (Depczynski et al 2012;Moore et al 2012) clearly demonstrated how global climate patterns could affect coral communities within an individual reef system through regional climate-forcing mechanisms.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the drivers of spatial variation in thermal forcing across a nearshore reef system and implications for coral bleaching

Falter

Zhang

Lowe

et al. 2014

Limnology & Oceanography

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We examined the seasonal and spatial variability in the temperatures of nearshore reef waters over 19 months across Coral Bay at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. Local deviations in the mean daily temperature of nearshore reef waters from offshore values (DT) were a linear function of the combined effect of net atmospheric heating (Q net ) and offshore wave height and period H s ffiffiffiffi ffi t p p . Whereas intra-annual variation in local heat exchange was driven mainly by seasonal changes in shortwave radiation, intra-annual variation in local cooling was driven mostly by changes in relative humidity (r 2 5 0.60) and wind speed (r 2 5 0.31) that exhibited no apparent seasonality. We demonstrate good agreement between nearshore reef temperatures modeled from offshore sea surface temperatures, offshore wave forcing, and local atmospheric heat fluxes with observed temperatures using a simple linear model (r 2 5 0.31-0.69, root-mean-square error 5 0.4-0.9uC). Using these modeled nearshore reef temperature records, we show that thermal stresses across the reef reached between 16uC weeks and 22uC weeks in the summer of 2011 when a mass coral bleaching event was reported, and between 12uC weeks and 13uC weeks in the following summer of 2012 when no mass bleaching was reported. After compensating for differences between observed and modeled thermal stresses, we found that maximum thermal stresses across the reef likely reached as high as 18-34uC weeks in the summer of 2011. The approach used here could thus improve our ability to predict spatial variation in thermal stress and bleaching across other wavedriven nearshore reef systems.

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“…In the wake of this 'marine heatwave', many biological effects were reported, including extensions and contractions in species distributions, variations in recruitment and growthrates, impacts on trophic relationships and altered catch rates of exploited species , Depczynski et al 2012, Smale & Wernberg 2012. Dominant seaweeds were particularly impacted, with large-scale decimations of important habitat formers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Reproductive seasonality and early life temperature sensitivity reflect vulnerability of a seaweed undergoing range reduction

Andrews¹,

Bennett²,

Wernberg³

2014

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Temperature is a major determinant of the performance and geographical ranges of marine species. Changes in temperature can therefore result in localised mortality and shifts in species distributions, but the phenology and temperature sensitivity of many important habitatforming seaweed species has not yet been investigated. Through field observations and culture growth experiments, the present study investigated the temperature sensitivity of reproductive timing, early post-settlement growth and survival, and recruitment success of the widespread foundation seaweed Scytothalia dorycarpa in Australia. In culture, the highest settlement densities and lowest mortality rates were achieved at 15°C, and optimal temperatures for germling fertilisation occurred at 18°C, whereas temperatures greater than 20°C delayed germling settlement and significantly increased mortality rates, with no germlings surviving at temperatures greater than 23°C. Experimental findings were consistent with field observations that found adult reproductive development and gamete release to occur in synchronous pulses throughout the winter months, when seawater temperatures were ~18°C. Surveys of the latitudinal distribution of S. dorycarpa recruits showed significantly lower recruit densities in warmer, low-latitude reefs where summer maximum temperatures often exceed 23°C compared to much higher recruit densities in cooler pole-ward reefs where average summer maximum temperatures are 21 to 22°C. The timing of reproduction, latitudinal distribution of recruits and culture temperature optima all indicate high temperature sensitivity among the early life stages of S. dorycarpa. These findings help to explain the rapid range contraction of this species following a 2011 marine heatwave off the southwest coast of Australia.

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Bleaching, coral mortality and subsequent survivorship on a West Australian fringing reef

Cited by 108 publications

References 18 publications

Resilience of coral calcification to extreme temperature variations in the Kimberley region, northwest Australia

Resilience of coral calcification to extreme temperature variations in the Kimberley region, northwest Australia

Assessing the drivers of spatial variation in thermal forcing across a nearshore reef system and implications for coral bleaching

Reproductive seasonality and early life temperature sensitivity reflect vulnerability of a seaweed undergoing range reduction

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