Rising to the challenge of sustaining coral reef resilience

Cryptic regime shift in benthic community structure on shallow reefs in St. John, US Virgin Islands

“…scleractinians) and macroalgae, and they report changes that differ from those reported here. Unlike many Caribbean reefs over the last few decades, the present reefs in St. John did not undergo rapid transitions in community structure (sensu Done 1992), and their dynamics do not conform to changes expected within the 'coral reef crisis' construct (Bellwood et al 2004, Hughes et al 2010.…”

“…Changes in cover of scleractinians, macroalgae, and CTB are described elsewhere (Edmunds 2013), and a subset of these data has been used to show that octocorals increased in abundance between 1992 and 2013 (Lenz et al 2015). Using all the data from 1992 to 2014, and quantifying octocoral and scleractinian communities, we evaluate whether this record conforms to the commonly referenced 'coral reef crisis' (Hughes et al 2010, Bellwood et al 2004) that refers to sites facing imminent collapse of the coral reef community. We address 2 questions: (1) is there evidence of a regime change affecting multiple aspects of community structure, and (2) to what extent have changes in community structure been associated with both episodic and chronic changes in physical environmental conditions?…”

Marine debris: A proximate threat to marine sustainability in Bootless Bay, Papua New Guinea

“…Research and adaptation imperatives in a climate-change focused world are increasingly directed towards fostering ecosystem resilience (e.g. Hughes et al, 2010). In this case, a clear first step down this path is through concerted efforts to deal with marine debris.…”

Macroalgal terpenes function as allelopathic agents against reef corals

“…However, the direct and interactive effects of climate-induced coral bleaching (1,2), ocean acidification (2,3), coral disease (4), coastal overfishing, and eutrophication (5)(6)(7)(8) have led to coral decline over wide areas. On many reefs, dramatic declines in coral cover have co-occurred with significant increases in fleshy macroalgae (9)(10)(11). Once established, macroalgae can inhibit coral recruitment and decrease herbivore grazing, producing negative feedbacks that reinforce phase shifts and further diminish reef function (12)(13)(14).…”

“…Once established, macroalgae can inhibit coral recruitment and decrease herbivore grazing, producing negative feedbacks that reinforce phase shifts and further diminish reef function (12)(13)(14). Thus, local (e.g., overfishing) and global (e.g., climate) stresses may interact in complex ways to suppress coral cover, promote algal proliferation, and compromise reef resilience; such complexities provide both challenges and opportunities for managing these dynamic ecosystems (11,13).…”