Historical Temperature Variability Affects Coral Response to Heat Stress

Carilli, Jessica; Donner, Simon D.; Hartmann, Aaron C.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0034418

Cited by 150 publications

(154 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Nonetheless, these reef communities also support reasonable levels of coral cover (25-26 %) and high diversity (Craig et al 2001) with reasonably robust rates of coral growth (*1.4 g cm 2 yr -1 ; Smith et al 2007). In the Red Sea, Pineda et al (2013) found higher rates of bleaching in corals living on the more exposed, seaward sides of nearshore reefs than corals living on the more protected, shoreward sides, despite much higher temperature elevations and variations within the more protected sites, thus suggesting some form of environmentally dependent resilience related to prior history of thermal variability and exposure (Carilli et al 2012;Castillo et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience of coral calcification to extreme temperature variations in the Kimberley region, northwest Australia

et al. 2015

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We report seasonal changes in coral calcification within the highly dynamic intertidal and subtidal zones of Cygnet Bay (16.5°S, 123.0°E) in the Kimberley region of northwest Australia, where the tidal range can reach nearly 8 m and the temperature of nearshore waters ranges seasonally by *9°C from a minimum monthly mean of *22°C to a maximum of over 31°C. Corals growing within the more isolated intertidal sites experienced maximum temperatures of up to *35°C during spring low tides in addition to being routinely subjected to high levels of irradiance ([1500 lmol m -2 s -1 ) under near stagnant conditions. Mixed model analysis revealed a significant effect of tidal exposure on the growth of Acropora aspera, Dipsastraea favus, and Trachyphyllia geoffroyi (p B 0.04), as well as a significant effect of season on A. aspera and T. geoffroyi (p B 0.01, no effect on D. favus); however, the growth of both D. favus and T. geoffroyi appeared to be better suited to the warm summer conditions of the intertidal compared to A. aspera. Through an additional comparative study, we found that Acropora from Cygnet Bay calcified at a rate 69 % faster than a species from the same genus living in a backreef environment of a more typical tropical reef located 1200 km southwest of Cygnet Bay (0.59 ± 0.02 vs. 0.34 ± 0.02 g cm -2 yr -1 for A. muricata from Coral Bay, Ningaloo Reef; p \ 0.001, df = 28.9). The opposite behaviour was found for D. favus from the same environments, with colonies from Cygnet Bay calcifying at rates that were 33 % slower than the same species from Ningaloo Reef (0.29 ± 0.02 vs. 0.44 ± 0.03 g cm -2 yr -1 , p \ 0.001, df = 37.9). Our findings suggest that adaption and/or acclimatization of coral to the more thermally extreme environments at Cygnet Bay is strongly taxon dependent.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience of coral calcification to extreme temperature variations in the Kimberley region, northwest Australia

et al. 2015

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“…However, depth may not always provide this function, as corals in different depth strata in reef environments can be subject to thermal conditions different from those at the surface due to local circulation patterns (Leichter et al 2006). Further, colonies living at deeper depths may also be differently acclimated and potentially more sensitive to temperature changes of smaller magnitude (Oliver and Palumbi 2011;Carilli et al 2012). Our study area provides a case study for investigating the structure and impacts of depth-dependent thermal dynamics on reef environments, as it is an area of extensive coral development that experiences large variation in both temperature and salinity (Kaufmann and Thompson 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When depth is no refuge: cumulative thermal stress increases with depth in Bocas del Toro, Panama

et al. 2013

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Coral reefs are increasingly affected by hightemperature stress events and associated bleaching. Monitoring and predicting these events have largely utilized sea surface temperature data, due to the convenience of using large-scale remotely sensed satellite measurements. However, coral bleaching has been observed to vary in severity throughout the water column, and variations in coral thermal stress across depths have not yet been well investigated. In this study, in situ water temperature data from 1999 to 2011 from three depths were used to calculate thermal stress on a coral reef in Bahia Almirante, Bocas del Toro, Panama, which was compared to satellite surface temperature data and thermal stress calculations for the same area and time period from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coral Reef Watch Satellite Bleaching Alert system. The results show similar total cumulative annual thermal stress for both the surface and depth-stratified data, but with a striking difference in the distribution of that stress among the depth strata during different high-temperature events, with the greatest thermal stress unusually recorded at the deepest measured depth during the most severe bleaching event in 2005. Temperature records indicate that a strong density-driven temperature inversion may have formed in this location in that year, contributing to the persistence and intensity of bleaching disturbance at depth. These results indicate that depth may not provide a stress refuge from high water temperature events in some situations, and in this case, the water properties at depth appear to have contributed to greater coral bleaching at depth compared to near-surface locations. This case study demonstrates the importance of incorporating depth-stratified temperature monitoring and small-scale oceanographic and hydrologic data for understanding and predicting local reef responses to elevated water temperature events.

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“…a single grid cell may span the entire continental shelf width, and are better suited to represent the mean temperature of an area of ocean containing coral reefs than the temperature surrounding an individual coral reef Stock et al, 2011); and ii) presently a fixed bleaching threshold is used, although bleaching susceptibility is shown to vary across coral taxa as well as across coral-symbiont couples Carilli et al, 2012). Improvements in GCMs, particularly a higher grid resolution in the tropics, higher vertical resolution in the upper ocean, and site-specific hydrodynamic models, and the use of variable bleaching thresholds are crucial in refining projections for individual reefs Carilli et al, 2012). However, these improvements are thought to have a small effect on the globally averaged prognosis of coral bleaching (Donner et al, 2005;Donner et al, 2009).…”

Section: Quantitative Approaches and Lca Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a meaningful assessment of marine ecological impacts in life cycle assessment (LCA)

Woods

Veltman

Huijbregts

et al. 2016

Environment International

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Human demands on marine resources and space are currently unprecedented and concerns are rising over observed declines in marine biodiversity. A quantitative understanding of the impact of industrial activities on the marine environment is thus essential. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a widely applied method for quantifying the environmental impact of products and processes. LCA was originally developed to assess the impacts of landbased industries on mainly terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. As such, impact indicators for major drivers of marine biodiversity loss are currently lacking. We review quantitative approaches for cause-effect assessment of seven major drivers of marine biodiversity loss: climate change, ocean acidification, eutrophication-induced hypoxia, seabed damage, overexploitation of biotic resources, invasive species and marine plastic debris. Our review shows that impact indicators can be developed for all identified drivers, albeit at different levels of coverage of cause-effect pathways and variable levels of uncertainty and spatial coverage. Modeling approaches to predict the spatial distribution and intensity of human-driven interventions in the marine environment are relatively well-established and can be employed to develop spatially-explicit LCA fate factors. Modeling approaches to quantify the effects of these interventions on marine biodiversity are less well-developed. We highlight specific research challenges to facilitate a coherent incorporation of marine biodiversity loss in LCA, thereby making LCA a more comprehensive and robust environmental impact assessment tool. Research challenges of particular importance include i) incorporation of the non-linear behavior of global circulation models (GCMs) within an LCA framework and ii) improving spatial differentiation, especially the representation of coastal regions in GCMs and ocean-carbon cycle models.

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Historical Temperature Variability Affects Coral Response to Heat Stress

Cited by 150 publications

References 49 publications

Resilience of coral calcification to extreme temperature variations in the Kimberley region, northwest Australia

Resilience of coral calcification to extreme temperature variations in the Kimberley region, northwest Australia

When depth is no refuge: cumulative thermal stress increases with depth in Bocas del Toro, Panama

Towards a meaningful assessment of marine ecological impacts in life cycle assessment (LCA)

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