Recurrent disturbances, recovery trajectories, and resilience of coral assemblages on a South Central Pacific reef

Adjeroud, Mehdi; Michonneau, François; Edmunds, Peter J.; Chancerelle, Yannick; Loma, Thierry Lison de; Penin, Lucie; Thibaut, L; Vidal-Dupiol, Jérémie; Salvat, Bernard; Galzin, René

doi:10.1007/s00338-009-0515-7

Cited by 229 publications

(222 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

208

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…However, recovery might depend on the type, strength and timescale of the disturbance. Whereas some coral reefs might be able to recover from short-term bleaching and hurricane events within decades [63], recovery from long-term reef degradation might take centuries or longer [2,64].…”

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery of marine animal populations and ecosystems

Lotze¹,

Coll²,

Magera³

et al. 2011

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

341

316

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many marine populations and ecosystems have experienced strong historical depletions, yet reports of recoveries are increasing. Here, we review the growing research on marine recoveries to reveal how common recovery is, its magnitude, timescale and major drivers. Overall, 10-50% of depleted populations and ecosystems show some recovery, but rarely to former levels of abundance. In addition, recovery can take many decades for long-lived species and complex ecosystems. Major drivers of recovery include the reduction of human impacts, especially exploitation, habitat loss and pollution, combined with favorable life-history and environmental conditions. Awareness, legal protection and enforcement of management plans are also crucial. Learning from historical recovery successes and failures is essential for implementing realistic conservation goals and promising management strategies.A new focus on recovery An increasing number of studies have reported strong declines in marine animal populations and the degradation of ocean ecosystems over past decades and centuries around the world [1][2][3][4][5][6][7], leading to a widespread perception of empty oceans and polluted waters. Yet, throughout history, humans have responded to declining resource abundance and ecosystem degradation by implementing management and conservation measures. Some of these have been successful and resulted in recovery, whereas others have failed [3,8,9].Therefore, an important question to science and management is: how common is recovery among depleted populations and degraded ecosystems in the ocean? Today, many marine mammal, bird, reptile and fish populations are at low abundance, and several species are endangered or extinct on regional or global scales [5,[10][11][12]. However, despite long periods of intense human impacts, most marine species persist and some populations do show signs of recovery [3,8,9]. Similarly, many coastal habitats, including wetlands, seagrass beds, mangrove and kelp forests, and oyster and coral reefs, have been severely reduced or degraded [2][3][4]6], yet partial recovery has been achieved in some regions in response to protection and pollution controls [3,13]. Restoration attempts at an ecosystem level have often been followed by the return and recovery of former species assemblages and ecosystem functions [13][14][15][16][17], but some ecosystems have remained in an altered state [18]. Such successes could serve as important guides for efforts to prevent further biodiversity loss and enhance future recoveries.Despite a growing number of case studies on the recovery of specific populations or ecosystems, an overview of the general patterns and drivers of marine recoveries over historical timescales is lacking. A recent review on the recovery of damaged ecosystems found that many terrestrial and marine ecosystems can recover on timescales of a few years to a few decades after major perturbations [19]. However, most case studies in the review, especially among marine and brackish examples, included small, short-...

show abstract

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery of marine animal populations and ecosystems

Lotze¹,

Coll²,

Magera³

et al. 2011

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

341

316

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…and Porites spp. resulted in a corresponding change in the community composition of specialized butterflyfishes (Berumen and Pratchett 2006;Adjeroud et al 2009;Pratchett et al 2011). The consequences of this shift for the persistence of the reef community remain to be seen, but the altered community can be expected to respond differently to future disturbances.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting rates of coral recovery and reassembly in coral communities on the Great Barrier Reef

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Changes in the relative abundances of coral taxa during recovery from disturbance may cause shifts in essential ecological processes on coral reefs. Coral cover can return to pre-disturbance levels (coral recovery) without the assemblage returning to its previous composition (i.e., without reassembly). The processes underlying such changes are not well understood due to a scarcity of longterm studies with sufficient taxonomic resolution. We assessed the trajectories and time frames for coral recovery and reassembly of coral communities following disturbances, using modeled trajectories based on data from a broad spatial and temporal monitoring program. We studied coral communities at six reefs that suffered substantial coral loss and subsequently regained at least 50 % of their pre-disturbance coral cover. Five of the six communities regained their coral cover and the rates were remarkably consistent, taking 7-10 years. Four of the six communities reassembled to their pre-disturbance composition in 8-13 years. The coral communities at three of the reefs both regained coral cover and reassembled ten years. The trajectories of two communities suggested that they were unlikely to reassemble and the remaining community did not regain pre-disturbance coral cover. The communities that regained coral cover and reassembled had high relative abundance of tabulate Acropora spp. Coral communities of this composition appear likely to persist in a regime of pulse disturbances at intervals of ten years or more. Communities that failed to either regain coral cover or reassemble were in near-shore locations and had high relative abundance of Porites spp. and soft corals. Under current disturbance regimes, these communities are unlikely to re-establish their pre-disturbance community composition.

show abstract

“…The rapid recovery from the large-scale disturbance was often associated with a change in relative coral composition, suggesting a compensatory response by massive Porites, which had suffered widespread bleaching but overall little mortality (Glynn et al, 2003). Similar changes in generic composition have been reported among other reefs showing capacity for rapid recovery from disturbance (e.g., Adjeroud et al, 2009). Increase in coral cover beyond the pre-bleaching event was additionally enhanced by new recruitment that became most apparent after 2005, although regrowth/ regeneration of remnants was also observed (Wieters, pers.…”

Section: Temporal Patternsmentioning

confidence: 54%

Functional community structure of shallow hard bottom communities at Easter Island (Rapa Nui)

Wieters

Medrano

Pérez‐Matus

2014

lajar

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTRACT. Important, often abrupt, and irreversible shifts associated with the degradation of ecosystem functioning and services are increasingly commonplace. Thus, a trait-based view of communities may be more insightful than that based solely on species composition, especially when inferring ecological responses to environmental change. This underscores the importance and urgency of establishing benchmarks against which future community changes and functional structure can be evaluated. As a first step toward setting these baselines and their current spatial variability, we here describe geographic and among-habitat patterns in the functional structure of shallow hard bottom communities, including fish assemblages, across the northeast and west coasts of Rapa Nui. We also document temporal patterns of change in dominant benthic functional groups that have taken place over the past 15 years at selected sites on this isolated Pacific island. Generally weak vertical zonation patterns were observed, with most striking differences due to the paucity of branching pocilloporid corals in shallow waters(<7 m), where massive corals of Porites predominate. We identified three main 'groups' of sites in terms of the relative abundance of major functional groups and these did not follow geographic arrangement or strict coastline orientation. The similar spatial change in benthic and fish functional community structure documented here suggests there may be strong coupling with coastal oceanographic conditions that varies on scales of 1s-10s of km. Temporal patterns document relatively rapid recovery of total coral cover, largely via compensatory change in relative coral composition with an increase in Porites upon abrupt decline of Pocillopora, following extensive coral mortality caused by thermal stress (coral bleaching) in 2000. Moreover, coral abundance in shallow habitats increased beyond pre-disturbance levels (i.e., 1999-2000). In contrast to shallow habitats, corals again suffered extensive mortality and reduced cover by 2005 at mid-(10-15 m) and deep (>15 m) habitats, with contrasting recovery. These results suggest depth-dependent disturbance regimes that differ in types and frequency of events, as well as capacity to recover. Overall, our results highlight the apparent resilience of the current system and provide a first-cut benchmark as to where management subsystems might be prescribed so as to spatially match ecosystem characteristics. Keywords: functional groups, community structure, coral, fish assemblages, Easter Island, Chile. Estructura funcional de comunidades que habitan sobre los fondos duros deIsla de Pascua (Rapa Nui) RESUMEN. Importantes, abruptos e irreversibles son los cambios asociados con la degradación del funcionamiento de los ecosistemas. Por ello, una visión basada en las características funcionales de las comunidades puede entregar más información que aquella basada en la composición de especies, especialmente cuando el medio ambiente infiere sobre respuestas ecológicas. Esto resalta la impor...

show abstract

Recurrent disturbances, recovery trajectories, and resilience of coral assemblages on a South Central Pacific reef

Cited by 229 publications

References 27 publications

Recovery of marine animal populations and ecosystems

Recovery of marine animal populations and ecosystems

Contrasting rates of coral recovery and reassembly in coral communities on the Great Barrier Reef

Functional community structure of shallow hard bottom communities at Easter Island (Rapa Nui)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About