Species composition, habitat, and water quality influence coral bleaching in southern Florida

Wagner, Daniel; Kramer, Philip; Woesik, Robert van

doi:10.3354/meps08584

Cited by 119 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…For example, larger colonies experienced more extensive bleaching than smaller colonies of several species during a major Caribbean bleaching event in 2005 (Brandt, 2009). However, other studies have found contrary results with higher bleaching for smaller colonies for some species (Pratchett et al, 2013), or that colony size only influences bleaching prevalence for certain colony morphologies in certain locations (Wagner et al, 2010). Finally, other benthic organisms that compete for space with corals, such as soft corals and macroalgae, contain secondary metabolites that can lead to the expulsion of Symbiodinium (i.e., bleaching, Aceret et al, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Environmental Drivers of Variation in Bleaching Severity of Acropora Species during an Extreme Thermal Anomaly

et al. 2017

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High sea surface temperatures caused global coral bleaching during [2015][2016]. During this thermal stress event, we quantified within-and among-species variability in bleaching severity for critical habitat-forming Acropora corals. The objective of this study was to understand the drivers of spatial and species-specific variation in the bleaching susceptibility of these corals, and to evaluate whether bleaching susceptibility under extreme thermal stress was consistent with that observed during less severe bleaching events. We surveyed and mapped Acropora corals at 10 sites (N = 596) around the Lizard Island group on the northern Great Barrier Reef. For each colony, bleaching severity was quantified using a new image analysis technique, and we assessed whether small-scale environmental variables (depth, microhabitat, competition intensity) and species traits (colony morphology, colony size, known symbiont clade association) explained variation in bleaching. Results showed that during severe thermal stress, bleaching of branching corals was linked to microhabitat features, and was more severe at reef edge compared with lagoonal sites. Bleaching severity worsened over a very short time-frame (∼1 week), but did not differ systematically with water depth, competition intensity, or colony size. At our study location, within-and among-species variation in bleaching severity was relatively low compared to the level of variation reported in the literature. More broadly, our results indicate that variability in bleaching susceptibility during extreme thermal stress is not consistent with that observed during previous bleaching events that have ranged in severity among globally dispersed sites, with fewer species escaping bleaching during severe thermal stress. In addition, shaded microhabitats can provide a refuge from bleaching which provides further evidence of the importance of topographic complexity for maintaining the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of coral reefs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Environmental Drivers of Variation in Bleaching Severity of Acropora Species during an Extreme Thermal Anomaly

et al. 2017

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“…Shading reduces stress on the symbiont's photosystem, which in turn reduces the likelihood of coral bleaching (Warner et al, 1999;Takahashi et al, 2004). Notwithstanding the obviously adverse effects that poor-water quality, with high levels of pollutants and high nutrient concentrations, has on corals (Wooldridge and Done, 2009;Wagner et al, 2010;Wiedenmann et al, 2013), some shading provided by high-primary productivity and high turbidity can benefit corals during thermal-stress events (Cacciapaglia and van Woesik, 2016). Indeed, since coral bleaching is essentially extreme photoinhibition, and high temperatures make that photoinhibition worse (Warner et al, 1999;Takahashi et al, 2004), high productivity and high turbidity during high temperature events should effectively reduce the probability of photoinhibition and coral bleaching.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study used data that stemmed from the Florida Reef Resilience Program (FRRP) (http://www.frrp.org), which was a two-stage stratified-random survey design to assess the condition of scleractinian corals along the Florida reef tract every summer from 2005 to 2015 (Wagner et al, 2010;Smith et al, 2011;Burman et al, 2012). The region was stratified into geographic sub-regions and habitats.…”

Section: Coral Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such reductions in irradiance are common on deep reef slopes (Smith et al, 2014), or nearshore, where turbidity and chlorophylla concentrations are high (Wagner et al, 2010;van Woesik et al, 2012). Yet, reef corals generally prefer low-nutrient waters (Tomascik and Sander, 1987), and nearshore environments support high nutrient concentrations, which in combination with high temperatures are detrimental to reef corals (Wooldridge and Done, 2009;Wagner et al, 2010;Wiedenmann et al, 2013). Still, if shading in nearshore, turbid environments provides protection to corals under thermal-stress events, then the corals that can tolerate those nearshore conditions may be selected for when thermal-stress events become frequent.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Repeated Thermal Stress, Shading, and Directional Selection in the Florida Reef Tract

Woesik

McCaffrey

2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Over the last three decades reef corals have been subjected to an unprecedented frequency and intensity of thermal-stress events, which have led to extensive coral bleaching, disease, and mortality. Over the next century, the climate is predicted to drive sea-surface temperatures to even higher levels, consequently increasing the risk of mass bleaching and disease outbreaks. Yet, there is considerable temporal and spatial variation in coral bleaching and in disease prevalence. Using data collected from 2,398 sites along the Florida reef tract from 2005 to 2015, this study examined the temporal and spatial patterns of coral bleaching and disease in relation to coral-colony size, depth, temperature, and chlorophyll-a concentrations. The results show that coral bleaching was most prevalent during the warmest years in 2014 and 2015, and disease was also most prevalent in 2010, 2014, and 2015. Although the majority of the corals surveyed were found in habitats with low chlorophyll-a concentrations, and high irradiance, these same habitats showed the highest prevalence of coral bleaching and disease outbreaks during thermal-stress events. These results suggest that directional selection in a warming ocean may favor corals able to tolerate inshore, shaded environments with high turbidity and productivity.

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“…Furthermore, the threshold for heat-induced bleaching can be lowered by unfavourable concentrations of inorganic nutrients in the water column . Particularly, elevated levels of dissolved inorganic nitrogen can increase bleaching susceptibility (Wagner et al, 2010;Wiedenmann et al, 2012;Wooldridge, 2009) and this may be exacerbated by higher densities of symbionts in nutrient-enriched corals (Cunning and Baker, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Corals from the Persian/Arabian Gulf as models for thermotolerant reef-builders: Prevalence of clade C3 Symbiodinium, host fluorescence and ex situ temperature tolerance

Hume

D’Angelo

Burt

et al. 2013

Marine Pollution Bulletin

157

148

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a b s t r a c tCorals in the Arabian/Persian Gulf endure summer temperatures of up to 36°C, making them ideal subjects to study the mechanisms underlying thermal tolerance. Unexpectedly, we found the ''generalist'' Symbiodinium clade C3 to be the prevalent symbiont among seven coral species from Abu Dhabi (UAE) waters. Moreover, C3 represented the only dominant symbiont type in Porites spp. from this region. The ''thermotolerant'' symbionts D1a and C15 were not encountered, indicating that the association with these symbionts cannot be the sole reason for the heat tolerance of Gulf corals. The association of Porites lobata with specific symbiont types (C3 vs. C15) in samples from habitats with very different temperature regimes (Abu Dhabi vs. Fiji) remained unaffected by laboratory culture. During temperature stress experiments specimens from both locations strongly downregulated green fluorescent protein (GFP)-like pigments. However, the Abu Dhabi samples were less prone to bleaching and showed lower mortality.Crown

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Species composition, habitat, and water quality influence coral bleaching in southern Florida

Cited by 119 publications

References 56 publications

Environmental Drivers of Variation in Bleaching Severity of Acropora Species during an Extreme Thermal Anomaly

Environmental Drivers of Variation in Bleaching Severity of Acropora Species during an Extreme Thermal Anomaly

Repeated Thermal Stress, Shading, and Directional Selection in the Florida Reef Tract

Corals from the Persian/Arabian Gulf as models for thermotolerant reef-builders: Prevalence of clade C3 Symbiodinium, host fluorescence and ex situ temperature tolerance

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