Coral Communities, in Contrast to Fish Communities, Maintain a High Assembly Similarity along the Large Latitudinal Gradient along the Saudi Red Sea Coast

Sawall, Yvonne; Kürten, Benjamin; BX, Hoang

doi:10.4172/2157-7625.s4-003

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Mean monthly temperatures were obtained by temperature loggers deployed over one year at the experimental site and depth23.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, corals featuring a high flexibility in nutrients and energy acquisition (autotrophy versus heterotrophy) overcome thermal stress more likely2122. Despite a wide range of environmental conditions (including extremes) throughout the Red Sea, coral diversity and reef complexity remain high23. The occurrence of certain coral species throughout this highly differentiated gradient suggests regional adaptation.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Extensive phenotypic plasticity of a Red Sea coral over a strong latitudinal temperature gradient suggests limited acclimatization potential to warming

Sawall

Al-Sofyani

Hohn

et al. 2015

Sci Rep

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Global warming was reported to cause growth reductions in tropical shallow water corals in both, cooler and warmer, regions of the coral species range. This suggests regional adaptation with less heat-tolerant populations in cooler and more thermo-tolerant populations in warmer regions. Here, we investigated seasonal changes in the in situ metabolic performance of the widely distributed hermatypic coral Pocillopora verrucosa along 12° latitudes featuring a steep temperature gradient between the northern (28.5°N, 21–27°C) and southern (16.5°N, 28–33°C) reaches of the Red Sea. Surprisingly, we found little indication for regional adaptation, but strong indications for high phenotypic plasticity: Calcification rates in two seasons (winter, summer) were found to be highest at 28–29°C throughout all populations independent of their geographic location. Mucus release increased with temperature and nutrient supply, both being highest in the south. Genetic characterization of the coral host revealed low inter-regional variation and differences in the Symbiodinium clade composition only at the most northern and most southern region. This suggests variable acclimatization potential to ocean warming of coral populations across the Red Sea: high acclimatization potential in northern populations, but limited ability to cope with ocean warming in southern populations already existing at the upper thermal margin for corals.

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“…Mean monthly temperatures were obtained by temperature loggers deployed over one year at the experimental site and depth23.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Extensive phenotypic plasticity of a Red Sea coral over a strong latitudinal temperature gradient suggests limited acclimatization potential to warming

Sawall

Al-Sofyani

Hohn

et al. 2015

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Coral reefs are among the most productive and biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet (Roberts, 2002), even though they grow in oligotrophic waters of the tropics (Odum & Odum, 1955). The young and isolated Red Sea, with its thriving coral reefs, is highly oligotrophic, particularly in the subtropical central and northern areas (Raitsos et al, 2013;Sawall et al, 2014b;Kürten et al, 2014;Roth et al, 2018). However, nutrient inputs to the Red Sea from aquaculture (Loya et al, 2004;Kürten et al, 2015;Dunne, 2018;Hozumi et al, 2018) and urban waste water (Basaham et al, 2009;Al-Farawati, 2010;Kürten et al, 2014;Peña-García et al, 2014) affect marine life (Loya et al, 2004;Mohamed & Mesaad, 2007;Basaham et al, 2009;Naumann et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Significant parts of the city rely on septic tanks for wastewater which can be a source of nutrients and pollutants through leakages into the groundwater (Abu-Rizaiza & Sarikaya, 1993;Aljoufie & Tiwari, 2015). Moreover, the discharge of insufficiently treated sewage from marine outfalls (i.e., pipe discharge) as a point-source (Risk et al, 2009b;Al-Farawati, 2010) was already shown to raise near-shore N availability (Sawall et al, 2014b), affect planktonic (Pearman et al, 2018) and coral (Ziegler et al, 2016) microbial communities and reach nearby reefs (Risk et al, 2009b;Peña-García et al, 2014). As nutrients, among several stressors, have the largest effect on Red Sea hard coral resilience to climate change (Hall et al, 2018), a deeper understanding of the community response to eutrophication is fundamental.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrogen eutrophication particularly promotes turf algae in coral reefs of the central Red Sea

Karcher

Roth

Carvalho

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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While various sources increasingly release nutrients to the Red Sea, knowledge about their effects on benthic coral reef communities is scarce. Here, we provide the first comparative assessment of the response of all major benthic groups (hard and soft corals, turf algae and reef sands—together accounting for 80% of the benthic reef community) to in-situ eutrophication in a central Red Sea coral reef. For 8 weeks, dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) concentrations were experimentally increased 3-fold above environmental background concentrations around natural benthic reef communities using a slow release fertilizer with 15% total nitrogen (N) content. We investigated which major functional groups took up the available N, and how this changed organic carbon (Corg) and N contents using elemental and stable isotope measurements. Findings revealed that hard corals (in their tissue), soft corals and turf algae incorporated fertilizer N as indicated by significant increases in δ15N by 8%, 27% and 28%, respectively. Among the investigated groups, Corg content significantly increased in sediments (+24%) and in turf algae (+33%). Altogether, this suggests that among the benthic organisms only turf algae were limited by N availability and thus benefited most from N addition. Thereby, based on higher Corg content, turf algae potentially gained competitive advantage over, for example, hard corals. Local management should, thus, particularly address DIN eutrophication by coastal development and consider the role of turf algae as potential bioindicator for eutrophication.

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“…Moreover, the discharge of insufficiently treated sewage from marine outfalls (i.e. pipe discharge) as a pointsource (Risk et al, 2009b;Al-Farawati, 2010) was already shown to raise near-shore N availability (Sawall et al, 2014b), affect planktonic (Pearman et al, 2018) and coral (Ziegler et al, 2016) microbial communities and reach nearby reefs (Risk et al, 2009b;Peña-García et al, 2014). As nutrients, among several stressors, have the largest effect on Red Sea hard coral resilience to climate change (Hall et al, 2018), a deeper understanding of the community response to eutrophication is fundamental.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Review #1 of "Nitrogen eutrophication particularly promotes turf algae in coral reefs of the central Red Sea (v0.1)"

2020

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While various sources increasingly release nutrients to the Red Sea, knowledge about their effects on benthic coral reef communities is scarce. Here, we provide the first comparative assessment of the response of all major benthic groups (hard and soft corals, turf algae, and reef sands-together accounting for 80 % of the benthic reef community) to in-situ eutrophication in a central Red Sea coral reef. For eight weeks, dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) concentrations were experimentally increased 3-fold above environmental background concentrations around natural benthic reef communities using a slow release fertilizer with 15 % total nitrogen (N) content. We investigated which major functional groups took up the available N, and how this changed organic carbon (C org) and N contents using elemental and stable isotope measurements. Findings revealed that hard corals (in their tissue), soft corals, and turf algae incorporated fertilizer N as indicated by significant increases in δ 15 N by 8 %, 27 % and 28 %, respectively. Among the investigated groups, C org content significantly increased in sediments (+24 %) and in turf algae (+33 %). Altogether, this suggests that among the benthic organisms only turf algae were limited by N availability and thus benefited most from N addition. Thereby, based on higher C org content, turf algae potentially gained competitive advantage over e.g. hard corals. Local management should, thus, particularly address DIN eutrophication by coastal development and consider the role of turf algae as potential bioindicator for eutrophication.

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Coral Communities, in Contrast to Fish Communities, Maintain a High Assembly Similarity along the Large Latitudinal Gradient along the Saudi Red Sea Coast

Cited by 12 publications

References 5 publications

Extensive phenotypic plasticity of a Red Sea coral over a strong latitudinal temperature gradient suggests limited acclimatization potential to warming

Extensive phenotypic plasticity of a Red Sea coral over a strong latitudinal temperature gradient suggests limited acclimatization potential to warming

Nitrogen eutrophication particularly promotes turf algae in coral reefs of the central Red Sea

Peer Review #1 of "Nitrogen eutrophication particularly promotes turf algae in coral reefs of the central Red Sea (v0.1)"

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