Confronting the coral reef crisis

Abstract

The worldwide decline of coral reefs calls for an urgent reassessment of current management practices. Confronting large-scale crises requires a major scaling-up of management efforts based on an improved understanding of the ecological processes that underlie reef resilience. Managing for improved resilience, incorporating the role of human activity in shaping ecosystems, provides a basis for coping with uncertainty, future changes and ecological surprises. Here we review the ecological roles of critical functional groups (for both corals and reef fishes) that are fundamental to understanding resilience and avoiding phase shifts from coral dominance to less desirable, degraded ecosystems. We identify striking biogeographic differences in the species richness and composition of functional groups, which highlight the vulnerability of Caribbean reef ecosystems. These findings have profound implications for restoration of degraded reefs, management of fisheries, and the focus on marine protected areas and biodiversity hotspots as priorities for conservation.

A safe operating space for humanity

“…Similarly, marine plankton are also vulnerable (Riebesell et al 2000), presumably with ripple effects up the food chain. Ocean acidification and warming combine and interact to decrease the productivity in coral reefs (Anthony et al 2008), reinforcing the notion that multiple stressors on coral reefs often combine to have negative effects that are well beyond those expected from any single stressor (Bellwood et al 2004). …”

“…Observations of a climate transition include a rapid retreat of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean (Johannessen 2008), retreat of mountain glaciers around the world (IPCC 2007a), loss of mass from the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets (Cazenave 2006), an increased rate of sea-level rise in the last 10-15 years (Church and White 2006), a four-degree latitude pole-ward shift of subtropical regions (Seidel and Randel 2006), increased bleaching and mortality in coral reefs (Bellwood et al 2004;Stone 2007), a rise in the number of large floods (Milly et al 2002;MEA 2005a), and the activation of slow feedback processes like the weakening of the oceanic carbon sink (Le ).…”

Regional foresight and dynamics of smart specialization: A typology of regional diversification patterns

“…Es inherente cuando se considera la capacidad ordinaria que tienen el sistema económico para generar redundancia en diferentes subsistemas (Bellwood et al, 2004), así por ejemplo: la capacidad para la substitución de materias primas, reasignación de recursos, incremento de la capacidad de producción entre otras. Es adaptativa cuando a través de la innovación se mantiene la funcionalidad del sistema, por ejemplo cuando el sistema empresarial es capáz de identificar y materializar a través de la oferta de productos y servicios, el cambio de comportamiento de su demanda, así las empresas innovadoras son las que continuamente están transformando, sus sistemas de producción, su organización interna y su relación con las demás empresas (Becattini et al, 2002).…”

Importance, Destruction and Recovery of Coral Reefs

“…[27] The ability of coral reefs to survive the projected increases in temperature due to global warming will depend largely on the ability of corals to adapt or acclimatize to increased temperature extremes over the next few decades. [28] [28] Another challenge is the successful recruitment of juvenile stony corals, as it is essential for healthy coral reef ecosystems [29], [30]. The challenge here is that when local populations of stony corals are reduced, settlement of new coral recruits is also reduced [31], [32].…”