Scale dependence of coral reef oases and their environmental correlates

Elahi, Robin; Edmunds, Peter J.; Gates, Ruth D.; Kuffner, Ilsa B.; Barnes, Brian B.; Chollett, Iliana; Courtney, Travis A.; Guest, James R.; Lenz, Elizabeth A.; Toth, Lauren T.; Viehman, T. Shay; Williams, Ivor D.

doi:10.1002/eap.2651

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…In contrast, all the Lower Keys patch reefs have maintained positive carbonate budgets despite the suite of disturbances in recent decades (Figure 1; Figure S2 and Table S6). We hypothesize that the combination of relatively low water clarity (lower irradiance) of inshore environments on the FKRT, in general, and distance of the Lower Keys patch reefs from tidal passes to the Florida Bay, in particular, have resulted in these reefs having high resilience to both high and low thermal anomalies, respectively, suggesting that they may be important targets for future management (Barnes et al, 2015; Elahi et al, 2022; Guest et al, 2018; Sully & van Woesik, 2020). We note that SCTLD was first observed in the Lower Keys during the final year of our study in 2019, so we likely did not capture its full impact on coral cover at our sites there.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although there are still some "oases" within the degraded reefscapes of the Florida Keys (Figure 1d; Courtney et al, 2020;Elahi et al, 2022;Guest et al, 2018), our estimate of average reefaccretion potential on the FKRT at present of 0.20 mm year −1 is substantially lower than most other locations around the world (Cornwall et al, 2021;Perry et al, 2018). With the putative additional contributions of physical and chemical erosion, it is likely that reef building on the FKRT has declined even more dramatically than our study suggests, and erosion is now the dominant process regionwide (i.e., reef accretion is estimated at −0.93 mm year −1 , on average).…”

Section: Quantifying Changes In Reef Accretionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Quantifying Changes In Reef Accretionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…Perry et al, 2018) using the equation suggested by Kinsey (1985) and regional reef-framework porosity estimates from Toth et al (2018a). We emphasize that reefaccretion potential likely represents a high-end estimate of realized accretion rates because it does not incorporate nonbiological physical erosion or chemical dissolution, which Toth et al (2022) estimated likely contributes at least an additional ~1 mm y -1 of erosion in the Florida Keys. Furthermore, the omission of some bioeroding taxa from our surveys, the possibility that sponge abundance has increased since they were last surveyed by CREMP in 2009, and the lack of co-located parrotfish data, suggest that our estimates of total bioerosion may be conservatively low and that reef-accretion potential is likely lower than our study indicates.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…We use those data to quantify the impacts of SCTLD on gross and net carbonate production, bioerosion, and reef-accretion potential as well as species-level contributions to carbonate production throughout its endemic period in the region (2017-2022; Figure 1). The carbonate budgets were calculated in R Studio (R Core Team, 2023; using the method proposed by Toth et al (2022), which is an adaptation of the ReefBudget v2 methodology (Perry and Lange, 2019). All data, calculations, and necessary modifications to the ReefBudget v2 methodology are discussed in detail in and data and code for new analyses included in this study are provided in version 1.1 of the USGS software release by .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stony coral tissue loss disease accelerated shifts in coral composition and declines in reef accretion potential in the Florida Keys

Toth,

Courtney,

Colella

et al. 2023

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Outbreaks of coral disease have been a dominant force shaping western Atlantic coral-reef assemblages since the late 1970s. Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) is nonetheless having an unprecedented impact in the region. Whereas numerous studies over the last decade have worked to characterize this novel pathogen and its impacts on coral populations, few have quantified its functional effects on reef ecosystems. Of particular importance is how SCTLD may be impacting the essential reef-accretion process and the myriad ecosystem services it supports. Here, we evaluated the impact of SCTLD on reef-accretion potential by estimating carbonate budgets and taxon-level carbonate production at 43 sites throughout the Florida Keys from 2016−2022. Average regional reef-accretion potential declined from an already low, but positive rate of 0.30 ± 0.16 mm y-1 (mean ± standard error) in 2016 before the disease was first observed, to a state of accretionary stasis (0.08 ± 0.12 mm y-1) by 2022. This 70% relative decline in reef-accretion potential was driven by the loss of reef-building corals, with significant decreases in carbonate production by massive taxa including Colpophyllia natans, Montastraea cavernosa, Pseudodiploria strigosa, Orbicella spp., and Siderastrea siderea, and increasing contributions from less susceptible, weedy taxa including Millepora spp., Agaricia spp., and Porites astreoides. In general, changes in taxon-level carbonate production following the SCTLD outbreak mirror long-term shifts in reef assemblages in response to previous stressors. One striking exception, however, is S. siderea, which had become increasingly dominant in recent decades, but declined significantly in response to SCTLD. Overall, by further decimating the already depauperate reef-building coral populations in the Florida Keys, SCTLD has caused a functionally significant shift in the composition of Florida’s coral-reef assemblages and accelerated the loss of regional reef-building capacity. The dire impacts of the disease in south Florida may serve as an early warning that the persistence of the invaluable ecological and socioeconomic functions coral reefs provide will be increasingly threatened throughout the western Atlantic in the aftermath of SCTLD.

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“…As restorations continue to scale up spatially, new approaches will be needed to evaluate changes in ecosystem functions and services at larger spatial scales. In coral reef systems, the applications of explanatory and predictive models for both ecology and hydrodynamics have increased over the past several decades (e.g., Chen et al, 2020; Elahi et al, 2022; Madin et al, 2020; Yu et al, 2018). Considerable expertise and many tools have been developed for ecological, hydrodynamic, and engineering processes specific to coral reefs.…”

Section: Coral Restoration For Coastal Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coral restoration for coastal resilience: Integrating ecology, hydrodynamics, and engineering at multiple scales

Viehman,

Reguero,

Lenihan

et al. 2023

Ecosphere

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The loss of functional and accreting coral reefs reduces coastal protection and resilience for tropical coastlines. Coral restoration has potential for recovering healthy reefs that can mitigate risks from coastal hazards and increase sustainability. However, scaling up restoration to the large extent needed for coastal protection requires integrated application of principles from coastal engineering, hydrodynamics, and ecology across multiple spatial scales, as well as filling missing knowledge gaps across disciplines. This synthesis aims to identify how scientific understanding of multidisciplinary processes at interconnected scales can advance coral reef restoration. The work is placed within the context of a decision support framework to evaluate the design and effectiveness of coral restoration for coastal resilience. Successfully linking multidisciplinary science with restoration practice will ensure that future large‐scale coral reef restorations maximize protection for at‐risk coastal communities.

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Scale dependence of coral reef oases and their environmental correlates

Cited by 9 publications

References 60 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

Stony coral tissue loss disease accelerated shifts in coral composition and declines in reef accretion potential in the Florida Keys

Coral restoration for coastal resilience: Integrating ecology, hydrodynamics, and engineering at multiple scales

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