Algae-Dominated Reefs

Vroom, Peter S.; Page, Kimberly N.; Kenyon, Jean C.; Brainard, Russell E.

doi:10.1511/2006.61.1004

Cited by 66 publications

(28 citation statements)

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“…Our previous investigations indicated that 67% of the reef's substratum is covered by live algae and only 16% by live coral. Historically, there is no empirical evidence available indicating a phase shift from coral to algal dominance in the reef, but since anthropogenic activities such as tourism and artisanal fisheries are common in the area Souza et al 2007;Ilarri et al 2008) a shift hypothesis should not be neglected (McManus et al 2000; but see Vroom et al 2006). Although the chosen zones may not thoroughly reflect the typical zones of Caribbean and Pacific reefs, they show physical resemblance to these and were, therefore, named flat and crest for practical purposes.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-random reef use by fishes at two dominant zones in a tropical, algal-dominated coastal reef

et al. 2010

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Habitat use and the processes which determine fish distribution were evaluated at the reef flat and reef crest zones of a tropical, algal-dominated reef. Our comparisons indicated significant differences in the majority of the evaluated environmental characteristics between zones. Also, significant differences in the abundances of twelve, from thirteen analyzed species, were observed within and betweensites. According to null models, non-random patterns of species co-occurrences were significant, suggesting that fish guilds in both zones were non-randomly structured. Unexpectedly, structural complexity negatively affected overall species richness, but had a major positive influence on highly site-attached species such as a damselfish. Depth and substrate composition, particularly macroalgae cover, were positive determinants for the fish assemblage structure in the studied reef, prevailing over factors such as structural complexity and live coral cover. Our results are conflicting with other studies carried out in coraldominated reefs of the Caribbean and Pacific, therefore supporting the idea that the factors which may potentially influence reef fish composition are highly site-dependent and variable.

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-random reef use by fishes at two dominant zones in a tropical, algal-dominated coastal reef

et al. 2010

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“…For example, recent documentation of healthy benthic and fish communities in the highly protected Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (Friedlander and DeMartini 2002;Vroom et al 2005Vroom et al , 2006Vroom and Timmers 2009) and U.S. Pacific Remote Island Areas (Vroom et al 2006;Sandin et al 2008) has fundamentally altered perceptions of the parameters useful for gauging reef health. Many scientists (Vroom et al 2006;Bruno et al 2009;Wismer et al 2009) now realize that a high percent cover of macroalgae is NOT always indicative of decreased ecosystem health (Bruno et al 2009;Vroom and Timmers 2009), and that macroalgae and corals often co-occur in relatively high abundance in healthy reef ecosystems (Vroom et al 2006;Sandin et al 2008). The all-encompassing paradigm that macroalgae are detrimental to reef systems (Hughes 1994;Steneck and Sala 2005) is too simplistic for the myriad types of reef systems that exist, and it is typically only in overfished or polluted environments that macroalgal phase shifts occur (Knowlton 1992;Hughes et al 1999;Williams et al 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Monitoring expeditions by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center's (PIFSC) Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED) at many of the most remote reefs in the Pacific support this premise, and have documented percent cover of non-invasive macroalgae often equaling or exceeding percent cover of living coral (Vroom et al 2005(Vroom et al , 2006Sandin et al 2008;Vroom and Timmers 2009), without indication that either functional group has a competitive advantage over the other in naturally oligotrophic, top-predator dominated environments. The study of reef communities presented here documents species-level percent cover of all benthic organisms encountered coupled with abundance of associated fish communities at these remote Pacific islands for the first time to provide insight on community structure at healthy minimally impacted islands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CRED began quantitative, interdisciplinary, ecosystem-based monitoring of Howland and Baker Islands in 2000 in order to establish baseline biological data. Thus far, these efforts have documented marine communities containing percent cover of live corals ranging from 24.7 to 55.6% (Vroom et al 2006;Sandin et al 2008) and percent cover of macroalgae ranging from 19.7 to 21.8% (Vroom et al 2006). Here we report the first quantitative species-level data for coral, algal, macroinvertebrate, and fish populations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Marine biological community baselines in unimpacted tropical ecosystems: spatial and temporal analysis of reefs at Howland and Baker Islands

et al. 2009

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Howland and Baker Islands are two small, isolated reef and sand islets located near the equator in the central Pacific Ocean that are situated approximately 60 km apart. In 2004 and 2006, species-level monitoring at multiple sites, coupled with towed-diver surveys in 2002, 2004, and 2006 on both of these federally protected islands, revealed diverse fish, coral, macroinvertebrate, and algal assemblages. This study examines interand intra-island spatial and temporal differences in community composition among sites and presents baseline biological community parameters for two of the least impacted reef systems in the world. Despite similarities in species composition, permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) and multidimensional scaling ordinations (nMDS) suggest biological communities at the two islands are distinct with Baker Island containing a greater percent cover of branched Acroporid corals and turf algae and Howland Island containing a greater percent cover of crustose coralline red algae and small, compact genera of coral. Both islands also contained considerable cover of noninvasive macroalgae. PERMANOVA further revealed benthic and fish species composition to differ between forereef and reef shelf sites from different sides of each island. When islands were considered as a whole, temporal changes were not noted between 2004 and 2006; however, temporal changes at select sites did occur, with coral cover decreasing significantly along the west side of Baker Island from 2004 to 2006.

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“…Loss of reef architecture (Á lvarez-Filip et al 2009b) to predominant algal epibenthic cover on Cobbler's Reef is consistent with a widespread modern phase shift on Caribbean (Hughes 1994;Chiappone et al 1997Chiappone et al , 2001 and Pacific (Jackson et al 2001;Vroom et al 2005Vroom et al , 2006 reefs, in which high coral cover gave way to macroalgal cover (McClanahan 2000;Wilkinson 2002) because of pathogens (white-band disease; Precht 2001, 2006), reduced herbivory (loss of Diadema; Lessios et al 1984a, b), bleaching (McWilliams et al 2005, overfishing (Hughes 1994;Jackson et al 2001;Pandolfi et al 2003), sedimentation stress, and nutrient loading (Bak 1978;Rogers 1983Rogers , 1990Grigg and Dollar 1990;Dubinsky and Stambler 1996;Wilkinson 1998;Roff et al 2013). Acropora palmata is especially vulnerable to high turbidity (Rogers 1983(Rogers , 1990).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Revised paleoenvironmental analysis of the Holocene portion of the Barbados sea-level record: Cobbler’s Reef revisited

Toscano

2016

Coral Reefs

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Sample elevations corrected for tectonic uplift and assessed relative to local modeled sea levels provide a new perspective on paleoenvironmental history at Cobbler's Reef, Barbados. Previously, 14 C-dated surface samples of fragmented Acropora palmata plotted above paleo sea level based on their present (uplifted) elevations, suggesting supratidal rubble deposited during a period of extreme storms (4500-3000 cal BP), precipitating reef demise. At several sites, however, A. palmata persisted, existing until *370 cal BP. Uplift-corrected A. palmata sample elevations lie below the western Atlantic sea-level curve, and *2 m below ICE-6G-modeled paleo sea level, under slow rates of sea-level rise, negating the possibility that Cobbler's Reef is a supratidal storm ridge. Most sites show limited age ranges from corals likely damaged/killed on the reef crest, not the mixed ages of rubble ridges, strongly suggesting the reef framework died off in stages over 6500 yr. Reef crest death assemblages invoke multiple paleohistoric causes, from ubiquitous hurricanes to anthropogenic impacts. Comparison of death assemblage ages to dated regional paleotempestological sequences, proxy-based paleotemperatures, recorded hurricanes, tsunamis, European settlement, deforestation, and resulting turbidity, reveals many possible factors inimical to the survival of A. palmata along Cobbler's Reef.

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Algae-Dominated Reefs

Cited by 66 publications

References 0 publications

Non-random reef use by fishes at two dominant zones in a tropical, algal-dominated coastal reef

Non-random reef use by fishes at two dominant zones in a tropical, algal-dominated coastal reef

Marine biological community baselines in unimpacted tropical ecosystems: spatial and temporal analysis of reefs at Howland and Baker Islands

Revised paleoenvironmental analysis of the Holocene portion of the Barbados sea-level record: Cobbler’s Reef revisited

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