Localized Impacts of Hurricane Irma on Diadema antillarum and Coral Reef Community Structure

Kobelt, Julia N.; Sharp, William C.; Miles, Travis; Feehan, Colette J.

doi:10.1007/s12237-019-00665-4

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…experienced a significant decline in cover following the SCTLD outbreak, and that decline was associated with a significant reduction in regional net carbonate production. Although hurricanes can have significant local‐scale impacts on coral cover (Gardner et al, 2005), our study supports the conclusion that the eight hurricanes that impacted the FKRT from 1996 to 2019 had minimal impacts on regional coral cover or carbonate production (Courtney et al, 2020; Kobelt et al, 2020). We note that these hurricanes did cause significant declines in the populations of other reef biota in the region (Ruzicka et al, 2013), including important bioeroders like D. antillarum (Kobelt et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Although hurricanes can have significant local‐scale impacts on coral cover (Gardner et al, 2005), our study supports the conclusion that the eight hurricanes that impacted the FKRT from 1996 to 2019 had minimal impacts on regional coral cover or carbonate production (Courtney et al, 2020; Kobelt et al, 2020). We note that these hurricanes did cause significant declines in the populations of other reef biota in the region (Ruzicka et al, 2013), including important bioeroders like D. antillarum (Kobelt et al, 2020). Hurricane impacts could also explain the apparent decline in parrotfish bioerosion in our study following the 2004–2005 hurricane season (Figures 2a and 3; Figures S7a and S8a).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

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The past, present, and future of coral reef growth in the Florida Keys

Toth

Courtney

Colella

et al. 2022

Global Change Biology

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Coral-reef degradation is driving global-scale reductions in reef-building capacity and the ecological, geological, and socioeconomic functions it supports. The persistence of those essential functions will depend on whether coral-reef management is able to rebalance the competing processes of reef accretion and erosion. Here, we reconstructed census-based carbonate budgets of 46 reefs throughout the Florida Keys from 1996 to 2019. We evaluated the environmental and ecological drivers of changing budget states and compared historical trends in reef-accretion potential to millennial-scale baselines of accretion from reef cores and future projections with coral restoration. We found that historically, most reefs had positive carbonate budgets, and many had reef-accretion potential comparable to the ~3 mm year −1 average accretion rate during the peak of regional reef building ~7000 years ago; however, declines in reef-building Acropora palmata and Orbicella spp. corals following a series of thermal stress events and coral disease outbreaks resulted in a shift from positive to negative budgets for most reefs in the region. By 2019, only ~15% of reefs had positive net carbonate production. Most of those reefs were in inshore, Lower Keys patch-reef habitats with low water clarity, supporting the hypothesis that environments with naturally low irradiance may provide a refugia from thermal stress. We caution that our estimated carbonate budgets are likely overly optimistic; comparison of reef-accretion potential to measured accretion from reef cores suggests that, by not accounting for the role of nonbiological physical and chemical erosion, censusbased carbonate budgets may underestimate total erosion by ~1 mm year −1 (−1.15 kg CaCO 3 m −2 year −1 ). Although the present state of Florida's reefs is dire, we demonstrate that the restoration of reef-building corals has the potential to help mitigate declines in reef accretion in some locations, which could allow some key ecosystem functions to be maintained until the threat of global climate change is addressed.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

The past, present, and future of coral reef growth in the Florida Keys

Toth

Courtney

Colella

et al. 2022

Global Change Biology

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“…The impacts to the Lower Florida Keys seagrass communities from Irma were generally localized, with species-specific beds of seagrass uprooted, and loss of seagrass from storm water runoff resulting in low dissolved oxygen and persistent hyposalinity, similar to historical datasets [ 97 , 98 ]. Coral reefs in the Middle and Upper Keys showed a significant decline in abundance of the keystone urchin grazer Diadema antillarum , as well as loss of sponges and hydrocorals due to high sedimentation [ 99 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hurricane impacts on a coral reef soundscape

2021

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Soundscape ecology is an emerging field in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and provides a powerful approach for assessing habitat quality and the ecological response of sound-producing species to natural and anthropogenic perturbations. Little is known of how underwater soundscapes respond during and after severe episodic disturbances, such as hurricanes. This study addresses the impacts of Hurricane Irma on the coral reef soundscape at two spur-and-groove fore-reef sites within the Florida Keys USA, using passive acoustic data collected before and during the storm at Western Dry Rocks (WDR) and before, during and after the storm at Eastern Sambo (ESB). As the storm passed, the cumulative acoustic exposure near the seabed at these sites was comparable to a small vessel operating continuously overhead for 1–2 weeks. Before the storm, sound pressure levels (SPLs) showed a distinct pattern of low frequency diel variation and increased high frequency sound during crepuscular periods. The low frequency band was partitioned in two groups representative of soniferous reef fish, whereas the high frequency band represented snapping shrimp sound production. Daily daytime patterns in low-frequency sound production largely persisted in the weeks following the hurricane. Crepuscular sound production by snapping shrimp was maintained post-hurricane with only a small shift (~1.5dB) in the level of daytime vs nighttime sound production for this high frequency band. This study suggests that on short time scales, temporal patterns in the coral reef soundscape were relatively resilient to acoustic energy exposure during the storm, as well as changes in the benthic habitat and environmental conditions resulting from hurricane damage.

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“…There have been many studies addressing single drivers and their impacts on different aspects or biological components of the south Florida aquatic ecosystems, such as the impacts of hurricanes on phytoplankton (Briceño and Boyer 2010;Wachnicka et al 2019;Peierls et al 2003), mangroves (Lagomasino et al 2020), corals (Kobelt et al 2019) and El Niño impacts on river flow and biotic responses (Schmidt et al 2001;Abtew and Trimble 2010;Phlips et al 2014), coastal salinity (Schmidt and Luther, 2002;Kelble et al 2007) and seagrasses (Fourqurean and Rutten 2004;Carlson et al 2010). However, the a b Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dissolved organic nutrients at the interface of fresh and marine waters: flow regime changes, biogeochemical cascades and picocyanobacterial blooms—the example of Florida Bay, USA

et al. 2021

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The availability of dissolved inorganic and organic nutrients and their transformations along the fresh to marine continuum are being modified by various natural and anthropogenic activities and climate-related changes. Subtropical central and eastern Florida Bay, located at the southern end of the Florida peninsula, is classically considered to have inorganic nutrient conditions that are in higher-than-Redfield ratio proportions, and high levels of organic and chemically-reduced forms of nitrogen. However, salinity, pH and nutrients, both organic and inorganic, change with changes in freshwater flows to the bay. Here, using a time series of water quality and physico-chemical conditions from 2009 to 2019, the impacts of distinct changes in managed flow, drought, El Niño-related increases in precipitation, and intensive storms and hurricanes are explored with respect to changes in water quality and resulting ecosystem effects, with a focus on understanding why picocyanobacterial blooms formed when they did. Drought produced hyper-salinity conditions that were associated with a seagrass die-off. Years later, increases in precipitation resulting from intensive storms and a hurricane were associated with high loads of organic nutrients, and declines in pH, likely due to high organic acid input and decaying organic matter, collectively leading to physiologically favorable conditions for growth of the picocyanobacterium, Synechococcus spp. These conditions, including very high concentrations of NH4+, were likely inhibiting for seagrass recovery and for growth of competing phytoplankton or their grazers. Given projected future climate conditions, and anticipated cycles of drought and intensive storms, the likelihood of future seagrass die-offs and picocyanobacterial blooms is high.

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Localized Impacts of Hurricane Irma on Diadema antillarum and Coral Reef Community Structure

Cited by 10 publications

References 49 publications

The past, present, and future of coral reef growth in the Florida Keys

The past, present, and future of coral reef growth in the Florida Keys

Hurricane impacts on a coral reef soundscape

Dissolved organic nutrients at the interface of fresh and marine waters: flow regime changes, biogeochemical cascades and picocyanobacterial blooms—the example of Florida Bay, USA

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