Optimal thermal conditions for corals extend poleward with oceanic warming

Landry Yuan, Félix; Yamakita, Takehisa; Bonebrake, Timothy C.; McIlroy, Shelby E.

doi:10.1111/ddi.13765

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 66 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To do this, we must recognize that although a reef used to be in a particular location, it might now, or in the near future, be more effective to restore the reef at or beyond its current margins, taking advantage of shifted boundaries in favorable environmental and climatic envelopes. It is important to note that poleward species and habitat shifts are expected to be variable and not a simple increase in latitude [ 98 , 101 , 102 ]. Rigorous spatiotemporal environmental understanding is essential to determine new envelope boundaries.…”

Section: Using Environmental Considerations To Innovate Restoration A...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Including environmental and climatic considerations for sustainable coral reef restoration

Burdett,

Albright,

Foster

et al. 2024

PLoS Biol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Coral reefs provide ecosystem benefits to millions of people but are threatened by rapid environmental change and ever-increasing human pressures. Restoration is becoming a priority strategy for coral reef conservation, yet implementation remains challenging and it is becoming increasingly apparent that indirect conservation and restoration approaches will not ensure the long-term sustainability of coral reefs. The important role of environmental conditions in restoration practice are currently undervalued, carrying substantial implications for restoration success. Giving paramount importance to environmental conditions, particularly during the pre-restoration planning phase, has the potential to bring about considerable improvements in coral reef restoration and innovation. This Essay argues that restoration risk may be reduced by adopting an environmentally aware perspective that gives historical, contemporary, and future context to restoration decisions. Such an approach will open up new restoration opportunities with improved sustainability that have the capacity to dynamically respond to environmental trajectories.

show abstract

Section: Using Environmental Considerations To Innovate Restoration A...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Including environmental and climatic considerations for sustainable coral reef restoration

Burdett,

Albright,

Foster

et al. 2024

PLoS Biol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Spatial structuring of coral traits along a subtropical-temperate transition zone persists despite localised signs of tropicalisation

Sahin,

E. Bosch,

Cooper

et al. 2024

Coral Reefs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Climate-driven species range expansions are underway with more tropically affiliated species, including Scleractinian corals, becoming increasingly abundant at higher latitudes. However, uncertainty remains on how these range shifts will affect reef-scale ecosystem processes, which will ultimately depend on the traits of the taxa that dominate these assemblages. Here, we quantified spatiotemporal patterns in the taxonomic and trait structure of coral assemblages along the subtropical-temperate coast of Western Australia (27°–34°S). Coral abundance was generally low and coral cover < 5% across our study sites. Coral assemblages shared similarities in morphological trait structures across the latitudinal gradient, mostly characterised by taxa with simple morphologies; yet subtle differences were also observed across latitudes, with high-latitude corals characterised by slower growth rates and reduced maximum colony sizes. We found a 3.4-fold increase (from 1 to 3.4 individuals m−2) in coral abundance at one heavily disturbed location, where canopy-forming seaweeds were replaced by turfing algae, a pattern that was partly driven by an increase in the relative contribution of warm affinity taxa, such as Acropora spp. We predicted these changes would be reflected in different components of functional diversity; yet, despite a localised signal of tropicalisation, we only observed subtle changes in the functional identity, richness, evenness, and divergence. The spatially invariant trait structure of coral assemblages suggests that the nature of ecosystem functions will likely remain unchanged during early stages of tropicalisation, and hence their contribution to temperate reef-scale ecological processes will depend on dominance over other benthic foundational species.

show abstract

Latitudinal variation in thermal performance of the common coral Pocillopora spp.

Edmunds,

Combosch,

Torrado

et al. 2024

Journal of Experimental Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding how tropical corals respond to temperatures is important to evaluating their capacity to persist in a warmer future. We studied the common Pacific coral Pocillopora over 44° of latitude, and used populations at three islands with different thermal regimes to compare their responses to temperature using thermal performance curves (TPCs) for respiration and gross photosynthesis. Corals were sampled in the local autumn from Moorea, Guam, and Okinawa where mean (± s.d.) annual seawater temperature is 28.0±0.9°C, 28.9±0.7°C, and 25.1±3.4°C, respectively. TPCs for respiration were similar among latitudes, the thermal optimum (Topt) was above the local maximum temperature at all three islands, and maximum respiration was lowest at Okinawa. TPCs for gross photosynthesis were wider, implying greater thermal eurytopy, with a higher Topt in Moorea versus Guam and Okinawa. Topt was above the maximum temperature in Moorea, but was similar to daily temperatures over 13% of the year in Okinawa, and 53% of the year in Guam. There was greater annual variation in daily temperatures in Okinawa than Guam or Moorea, which translated to large variation in the supply of metabolic energy and photosynthetically fixed carbon at higher latitudes. Despite these trends, the differences in TPCs for Pocillopora were not profoundly different across latitudes, reducing the likelihood that populations of these corals could better match their phenotypes to future more extreme temperatures through migration. Any such response would place a premium on high metabolic plasticity and tolerance of large seasonal variations in energy budgets.

show abstract

Optimal thermal conditions for corals extend poleward with oceanic warming

Cited by 3 publications

References 66 publications

Including environmental and climatic considerations for sustainable coral reef restoration

Including environmental and climatic considerations for sustainable coral reef restoration

Spatial structuring of coral traits along a subtropical-temperate transition zone persists despite localised signs of tropicalisation

Latitudinal variation in thermal performance of the common coral Pocillopora spp.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About