Coral health rapid assessment in marginal reef sites

Rogers, Ricardo; Correal, Gabriel de Oliveira; Oliveira, Thiago Cunha de; Carvalho, Leonardo Lara de; Mazurek, Patrícia; Barbosa, Juliana Eymara; Chequer, Luciana Pereira Torres; Domingos, Thaisa Francielle Souza; Jandre, Kelly de Andrade; Leão, Luciana Sanches Dourado; Moura, Laura de Andrade; Occhioni, Gisele Exel; Oliveira, Viviane Martins de; Silva, Elisabetta Santos; Cardoso, Alan Motta; Costa, Ana de Castro e; Ferreira, Carlos E. L.

doi:10.1080/17451000.2013.841944

Cited by 33 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Turf algae, for example, can occupy space quickly by vegetative reproduction and become dominant under different disturbance and stress conditions [ 65 ]. In subtropical reefs of Arraial do Cabo, the aquarium trade collection was reported to cause the loss of 50% of coral cover, mainly fire corals [ 66 ], with turf algae being the most competitive group to occupy free space. Additionally, herbivorous fishes, like parrotfishes, were reported as overfished on southeastern Brazilian reefs [ 67 – 68 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale patterns of benthic marine communities in the Brazilian Province

et al. 2018

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As marine ecosystems are influenced by global and regional processes, standardized information on community structure has become crucial for assessing broad-scale responses to natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Extensive biogeographic provinces, such as the Brazilian Province in the southwest Atlantic, present numerous theoretical and methodological challenges for understanding community patterns on a macroecological scale. In particular, the Brazilian Province is composed of a complex system of heterogeneous reefs and a few offshore islands, with contrasting histories and geophysical-chemical environments. Despite the large extent of the Brazilian Province (almost 8,000 kilometers), most studies of shallow benthic communities are qualitative surveys and/or have been geographically restricted. We quantified community structure of shallow reef habitats from 0° to 27°S latitude using a standard photographic quadrat technique. Percent cover data indicated that benthic communities of Brazilian reefs were dominated by algal turfs and frondose macroalgae, with low percent cover of reef-building corals. Community composition differed significantly among localities, mostly because of their macroalgal abundance, despite reef type or geographic region, with no evident latitudinal pattern. Benthic diversity was lower in the tropics, contrary to the general latitudinal diversity gradient pattern. Richness peaked at mid-latitudes, between 20°S to 23°S, where it was ~3.5-fold higher than localities with the lowest richness. This study provides the first large-scale description of benthic communities along the southwestern Atlantic, providing a baseline for macroecological comparisons and evaluation of future impacts. Moreover, the new understanding of richness distribution along Brazilian reefs will contribute to conservation planning efforts, such as management strategies and the spatial prioritization for the creation of new marine protected areas.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale patterns of benthic marine communities in the Brazilian Province

et al. 2018

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“…The region of Arraial do Cabo is of major ecological and biogeographic interest to the Southwestern Atlantic, since it represents the South distributional limit of some tropical reef organisms, and accumulates both tropical and warm temperate components (Ferreira et al, 2001(Ferreira et al, , 2004. With annual average water temperatures of 22°C (ranging from 18 to 25°at the study sites), the benthic cover of local rocky reefs includes corals (massive and milleporids) as veneer, with high cover of zoanthids, sponges, macroalgae and especially a rich epilithic algal community (Ferreira et al, 1998;Rogers et al, 2014).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

An experimental evaluation of macroalgal consumption and selectivity by nominally herbivorous fishes on subtropical rocky reefs

Mendes

Cordeiro

Ferreira

2015

Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology

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“…In the Southwestern Atlantic, coastal reef communities occur along of 3000 km of the Brazilian coastline [13], showing high endemism of reef-building species [14]. Four of those endemic species belong to the genus Mussismilia , commonly known as brain-corals [15, 16, 17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mussismilia harttii is the main reef-building coral in northeastern Brazil [14], usually found at depths of 2–6 m, with isolated records up to 80 m [20]. It is a hermaphrodite spawner species, with an annual reproductive cycle, releasing its gametes between September and November new moons [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling impacts of climate change on the potential habitat of an endangered Brazilian endemic coral: Discussion about deep sea refugia

et al. 2019

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Climate and environmental conditions are determinant for coral distribution and their very existence. When changes in such conditions occur, their effects on distribution can be predicted through species distribution models, anticipating suitable habitats for the subsistence of species. Mussismilia harttii is one of the most endangered Brazilian endemic reef-building corals, and in increasing risk of extinction. Herein, species distribution models were used to determine the present and future potential habitats for M . harttii . Estimations were made through the maximum entropy approach, predicting suitable habitat losses and gains by the end of the 21st century. For this purpose, species records published in the last 20 years and current and future environmental variables were correlated. The best models were chosen according to the Akaike information criterion (AIC) and evaluated through the partial ROC (AUCratio), a new approach which uses independent occurrence data. Both approaches showed that the models performed satisfactorily in predicting potential habitat areas for the species. Future projections were made using the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios for 2100, with different levels of greenhouse gas emission. Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) were used to model the Future Potential Habitat (FPH) of M . harttii in two different scenarios: stabilization of emissions (RCP 4.5) and increase of emissions (RCP 8.5). According to the results, shallow waters to the south of the study area concentrate most of the current potential habitats for the species. However, in future scenarios, there was a loss of suitable areas in relation to the Current Potential Habitat (RCP 4.5 46% and RCP 8.5 59%), whereas there is a southward shift of the suitable areas. In all scenarios of FPH, the temperature was the variable with the greatest contribution to the models (> 35%), followed by the current velocity (> 33%) and bathymetry (>29%). In contrast, there is an increase of deep (50–75 m) suitable areas FPH scenarios, mainly in the southern portion of its distribution, at Abrolhos Bank (off Espirito Santo State). These deeper sites might serve as refugia for the species in global warming scenarios. Coral communities at such depths would be less susceptible to impacts of climate change on temperature and salinity. However, the deep sea is not free from human impacts and measures to protect deeper ecosystems should be prioritized in environmental policies for Brazilian marine conservation, especially the Abrolhos Bank, due to its importance for M . harttii .

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Coral health rapid assessment in marginal reef sites

Cited by 33 publications

References 58 publications

Large-scale patterns of benthic marine communities in the Brazilian Province

Large-scale patterns of benthic marine communities in the Brazilian Province

An experimental evaluation of macroalgal consumption and selectivity by nominally herbivorous fishes on subtropical rocky reefs

Modeling impacts of climate change on the potential habitat of an endangered Brazilian endemic coral: Discussion about deep sea refugia

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