Retrograde Accretion of a Caribbean Fringing Reef Controlled by Hurricanes and Sea-level Rise

Blanchon, Paul; Richards, S.D.; Bernal, Juan Pablo; Cerdeira‐Estrada, Sergio; Ibarra, Martha; Corona-Martínez, Liliana; Martell‐Dubois, Raúl

doi:10.3389/feart.2017.00078

Cited by 30 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 56 publications

(66 reference statements)

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“…This relative vulnerability of reefs in the IO was associated with higher rates of SLR (0.94 mm yr -1 greater, PERMANOVA; p=0.02, Extended Data Tables 2, 3) rather than any biogeographic difference in accretion potential (PERMANOVA; p=0.65, Extended Data Table 4). While IO reefs are generally more resilient than those of the TWA 46 , current ecological trajectories suggest that few coral reef locations will likely maintain sufficiently high coral cover levels to keep pace with future SLR, resulting in greater incident wave energy exposure, and changing spectrum of wave processes, along reef-fronted shorelines 3,6 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Loss of coral reef growth capacity to track future increases in sea level

Perry

Álvarez‐Filip

Graham

et al. 2018

Nature

254

269

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Sea-level rise (SLR) is predicted to elevate water depths above coral reefs and to increase coastal wave exposure as ecological degradation limits vertical reef growth, but projections lack data on interactions between local rates of reef growth and sea level rise. Here we calculate the vertical growth potential of more than 200 tropical western Atlantic and Indian Ocean reefs, and compare these against recent and projected rates of SLR under different Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios. Although many reefs retain accretion rates close to recent SLR trends, few will have the capacity to track SLR projections under RCP4.5 scenarios without sustained ecological recovery, and under RCP8.5 scenarios most reefs are predicted to experience mean water depth increases of more than 0.5 m by 2100. Coral cover strongly predicts reef capacity to track SLR, but threshold cover levels that will be necessary to prevent submergence are well above those observed on most reefs. Urgent action is thus needed to mitigate climate, sea-level and future ecological changes in order to limit the magnitude of future reef submergence.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Loss of coral reef growth capacity to track future increases in sea level

Perry

Álvarez‐Filip

Graham

et al. 2018

Nature

254

269

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“…Our records are also subject to the same issues of preservation bias and time averaging as studies of Pleistocene outcrops (Greenstein et al 1998, Greenstein 2007. Branching corals such as A. cervicornis tend to be overrepresented in coral-reef death assemblages relative to those with massive morphologies, primarily as a result of frequent storm deposition , Greenstein 2007, Blanchon et al 2017; however, preservation in the fossil record is biased toward corals with larger, more robust morphologies (see Enos and Perkins 1977 for a list of the relative preservation potential of corals in the Florida Keys). Small corals or those with finely branching, encrusting, or plating morphologies (see Appendix S1: Table S3) are easily eroded or fragmented during storms and their rubble may be exported off the reef to back-reef environments or sediment-filled grooves instead of being incorporated into the reef framework (Shinn et al 1981, Hubbard et al 1990, Hubbard 2011.…”

Section: Bias In the Holocene Recordmentioning

confidence: 99%

The unprecedented loss of Florida's reef‐building corals and the emergence of a novel coral‐reef assemblage

Toth

Stathakopoulos

Kuffner

et al. 2019

Ecology

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Over the last half century, climate change, coral disease, and other anthropogenic disturbances have restructured coral‐reef ecosystems on a global scale. The disproportionate loss of once‐dominant, reef‐building taxa has facilitated relative increases in the abundance of “weedy” or stress‐tolerant coral species. Although the recent transformation of coral‐reef assemblages is unprecedented on ecological timescales, determining whether modern coral reefs have truly reached a novel ecosystem state requires evaluating the dynamics of reef composition over much longer periods of time. Here, we provide a geologic perspective on the shifting composition of Florida's reefs by reconstructing the millennial‐scale spatial and temporal variability in reef assemblages using 59 Holocene reef cores collected throughout the Florida Keys Reef Tract (FKRT). We then compare the relative abundances of reef‐building species in the Holocene reef framework to data from contemporary reef surveys to determine how much Florida's modern reef assemblages have diverged from long‐term baselines. We show that the composition of Florida's reefs was, until recently, remarkably stable over the last 8000 yr. The same corals that have dominated shallow‐water reefs throughout the western Atlantic for hundreds of thousands of years, Acropora palmata, Orbicella spp., and other massive coral taxa, accounted for nearly 90% of Florida's Holocene reef framework. In contrast, the species that now have the highest relative abundances on the FKRT, primarily Porites astreoides and Siderastrea siderea, were rare in the reef framework, suggesting that recent shifts in species assemblages are unprecedented over millennial timescales. Although it may not be possible to return coral reefs to pre‐Anthropocene states, our results suggest that coral‐reef management focused on the conservation and restoration of the reef‐building species of the past, will optimize efforts to preserve coral reefs, and the valuable ecosystem services they provide into the future.

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“…The Holocene record of reef‐building clearly shows that reef construction at a given site is typically dominated by a relatively restricted suite of coral taxa, and that this material is often converted to coral rubble during high energy physical disturbances (Hubbard et al., ). This coral rubble is often largely derived from fast‐growing branched coral taxa, which subsequently: (a) represents a volumetrically important component of accumulating reef frameworks, and (b) has historically sustained shallow fore‐reef and reef crest building as a result of breakage and rubble transport (Blanchon et al., ). However, changes in coral species composition and in the abundance of relevant morphotaxa (especially branched corals) mean that the supply side of this reef growth dynamic is changing.…”

Section: Impacts On Rates and Patterns Of Reef Growth (The Reducing Rmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing geo‐ecological functions of coral reefs in the Anthropocene

2018

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The ecology of many coral reefs has changed markedly over recent decades in response to various combinations of local and global stressors. These ecological changes have important implications for the abundance of taxa that regulate the production and erosion of skeletal carbonates, and thus for many of the geo‐ecological functions that coral reefs provide, including reef framework production and sediment generation, the maintenance of reef habitat complexity and reef growth potential. These functional attributes underpin many of the ecosystem goods and services that reefs provide to society. Rapidly changing conditions of reefs in the Anthropocene are likely to significantly impact the capacity of reefs to sustain these geo‐ecological functions. Although the Anthropocene footprint of disturbance will be expressed differently across ecoregions and habitats, the end point for many reefs may be broadly similar: (a) progressively shifting towards net neutral or negative carbonate budget states; (b) becoming structurally flatter; and (c) having lower vertical growth rates. It is also likely that a progressive depth‐homogenisation will occur in terms of these processes. The Anthropocene is likely to be defined by an increasing disconnect between the ecological processes that drive carbonate production on the reef surface, and the net geological outcome of that production, that is, the accumulation of the underlying reef structure. Reef structures are thus likely to become increasingly relict or senescent features, which will reduce reef habitat complexity and sediment generation rates, and limit reef potential to accrete vertically at rates that can track rising sea levels. In the absence of pervasive stressors, recovery of degraded coral communities has been observed, resulting in high net‐positive budgets being regained. However, the frequency and intensity of climate‐driven bleaching events are predicted to increase over the next decades. This would increase the spatial footprint of disturbances and exacerbate the magnitude of the changes described here, limiting the capacity of many reefs to maintain their geo‐ecological functions. The enforcement of effective marine protection or the benefits of geographic isolation or of favourable environmental conditions (“refugia” sites) may offer the hope of more optimistic futures in some locations. A >plain language summary is available for this article.

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Retrograde Accretion of a Caribbean Fringing Reef Controlled by Hurricanes and Sea-level Rise

Cited by 30 publications

References 56 publications

Loss of coral reef growth capacity to track future increases in sea level

Loss of coral reef growth capacity to track future increases in sea level

The unprecedented loss of Florida's reef‐building corals and the emergence of a novel coral‐reef assemblage

Changing geo‐ecological functions of coral reefs in the Anthropocene

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