2016
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13432
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Reefs of tomorrow: eutrophication reduces coral biodiversity in an urbanized seascape

Abstract: Although the impacts of nutrient pollution on coral reefs are well known, surprisingly, no statistical relationships have ever been established between water quality parameters, coral biodiversity and coral cover. Hong Kong provides a unique opportunity to assess this relationship. Here, coastal waters have been monitored monthly since 1986, at 76 stations, providing a highly spatially resolved water quality dataset including 68 903 data points. Moreover, a robust coral species richness (S) dataset is availabl… Show more

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Cited by 124 publications
(92 citation statements)
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References 94 publications
(153 reference statements)
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“…have also caused a rapid decline in the coral cover4445. In the present study, nutrients had only a marginal impact on coral-algal symbiosis, considering nutrients contribute the most to coral cover and species richness loss compared with other water quality parameters46, suggesting a lack of symbiotic flexibility in response to seawater pollution such as eutrophication. Increases in coastal nutrients are frequently linked to human activities4748, which suggests that human activities can also affect coral-algal symbiosis.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 53%
“…have also caused a rapid decline in the coral cover4445. In the present study, nutrients had only a marginal impact on coral-algal symbiosis, considering nutrients contribute the most to coral cover and species richness loss compared with other water quality parameters46, suggesting a lack of symbiotic flexibility in response to seawater pollution such as eutrophication. Increases in coastal nutrients are frequently linked to human activities4748, which suggests that human activities can also affect coral-algal symbiosis.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 53%
“…This suggests that the coral decline in the Pearl River estuary was primarily driven by eutrophication caused by the development of the PRD megacity. The greater severity of mortality toward the Pearl River estuary (Figure S3), where DIN concentrations are higher (Duprey et al, ), also supports this interpretation. Duprey et al () have suggested an annual average concentration of 2 µM DIN as a threshold for the coral communities of the Pearl River estuary: beyond this threshold, coral communities experience a severe decrease in coral cover and coral‐specific richness.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 62%
“…The greater severity of mortality toward the Pearl River estuary (Figure S3), where DIN concentrations are higher (Duprey et al, ), also supports this interpretation. Duprey et al () have suggested an annual average concentration of 2 µM DIN as a threshold for the coral communities of the Pearl River estuary: beyond this threshold, coral communities experience a severe decrease in coral cover and coral‐specific richness. During the period 1990–1995, the DIN concentration in eastern HK was consistently above this threshold (Figure a), suggesting that the coral communities' decline was caused by an increase in the DIN concentration.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 62%
“…Also, large scale, climate change-related sea surface warming (Hoegh-Guldberg, 1999;Li & Reidenbach, 2014), massive coral bleaching (Miller, Muller, Rogers, Waara et al, 2009), mass coral mortalities (Miller, Waara, Muller & Rogers, 2006), and ocean acidification (Pandolfi, Connolly, Marshall & Cohen, 2011) have resulted in significant biodiversity loss (Jones, McCormick, Srinivasan & Eagle, 2004) and in the alteration of ecosystem functions (Bellwood, Hughes, Folke & Nyström, 2004), benefits (Veron, Hoegh-Guldberg, Lenton, Lough et al, 2009), and resilience (Carilli, Norris, Black, Walsh et al, 2009;Elmhirst, Connolly & Hughes, 2009;Anthony, Maynard, Dí az-Pulido, Mumby et al, 2011). Large-scale, climate change-related phenomena often operate atop of multiple local scale factors, which in combination, can often magnify local impacts on coral reef ecosystem resilience (Hughes, Rodrigues, Bellwood, Ceccarelli et al, 2007;Ledlie, Graham, Bythell, Wilson et al, 2007;Vega-Thurber, Burkepile, Fuchs, Shantz et al, 2013;Duprey, Yasuhara & Baker, 2016) and on overall biodiversity (Foden, Maze, Vié , Angulo et al, 2008;Bellard, Environmental Management and Sustainable Development ISSN 2164-7682 2017 Bertelsmeier, Leadley, Thuiller et al, 2012;Rogers, 2013).…”
Section: Synergistic Impacts Of Local and Global-scale Factors In Cormentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Also, it may result in a chronic increase in water turbidity, declining sunlight penetration, and in a chronic deterioration of sediment quality (Livingston, 2001). Eutrophication may also foster phytoplankton blooms (Bell, 1992;McComb, 1995;Arhonditsis, Karydis, & Tsirtsis, 2003), harmful algal blooms (Anderson, Glibert, & Burkholder, 2002), rapid macroalgal growth (Naim, 1993), a long-term decline in fisheries productivity (Hodgkiss & Yim, 1995), and a net decline in seagrass (Duarte, 1995;Tomasko, Dawes & Hall, 1996) and coral reef communities (Lapointe & Clark, 1992;Cloern, 2001;Dí az-Ortega & Herná ndez-Delgado, 2014;Duprey, Yasuhara, & Baker, 2016). Corals are particularly susceptible to eutrophication as a result of declining growth rates (Tomascik & Sander, 1985;Tomascik, 1990), reproductive output (Tomascik & Sander, 1987b), larval settlement rates (Tomascik, 1991), increased incidence of diseases (Kaczmarsky, Draud, & Williams, 2005), altered Environmental Management and Sustainable Development ISSN 2164-7682 2017 microbiology (Kline, Kuntz, Breitbart, Knowlton et al, 2006), and increased susceptibility to bleaching (Vega-Thurber, Burkepile, Fuchs, Shantz et al, 2013;Wiedenmann et al, 2013), and mortality (Pastorok & Byliard, 1985), often impacting benthic community structure (Tomascik & Sander, 1987a).…”
Section: Implications Of Environmental Stress On Coral Reef Conservatmentioning
confidence: 99%