Seeking Resistance in Coral Reef Ecosystems: The Interplay of Biophysical Factors and Bleaching Resistance under a Changing Climate

Page, Charlotte E; Leggat, William; Heron, Scott F.; Choukroun, Séverine; Lloyd, J.; Ainsworth, Tracy D.

doi:10.1002/bies.201800226

Cited by 31 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 115 publications

(215 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, regions of higher mixing and temporal thermal respite have be found to result in lower mortality in benthic invertebrates and habitat‐forming organisms (Baird et al, ; Frade et al, ; Green et al, ; Richards et al, ; Roberts et al, ). These examples support the assertion that regions characterized by high thermal variance, and those with short‐term respite during extremes, have greater capacity to withstand extreme conditions (Ainsworth et al, ; Castillo, Ries, Weiss, & Lima, ; Klein et al, ; Morikawa & Palumbi, ; Page et al, ).…”

Section: What Can We Learn From Recent Climate Extremes?supporting

confidence: 61%

How do we overcome abrupt degradation of marine ecosystems and meet the challenge of heat waves and climate extremes?

Ainsworth

Hurd

Gates

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Extreme heat wave events are now causing ecosystem degradation across marine ecosystems. The consequences of this heat‐induced damage range from the rapid loss of habitat‐forming organisms, through to a reduction in the services that ecosystems support, and ultimately to impacts on human health and society. How we tackle the sudden emergence of ecosystem‐wide degradation has not yet been addressed in the context of marine heat waves. An examination of recent marine heat waves from around Australia points to the potential important role that respite or refuge from environmental extremes can play in enabling organismal survival. However, most ecological interventions are being devised with a target of mid to late‐century implementation, at which time many of the ecosystems, that the interventions are targeted towards, will have already undergone repeated and widespread heat wave induced degradation. Here, our assessment of the merits of proposed ecological interventions, across a spectrum of approaches, to counter marine environmental extremes, reveals a lack preparedness to counter the effects of extreme conditions on marine ecosystems. The ecological influence of these extremes are projected to continue to impact marine ecosystems in the coming years, long before these interventions can be developed. Our assessment reveals that approaches which are technologically ready and likely to be socially acceptable are locally deployable only, whereas those which are scalable—for example to features as large as major reef systems—are not close to being testable, and are unlikely to obtain social licence for deployment. Knowledge of the environmental timescales for survival of extremes, via respite or refuge, inferred from field observations will help test such intervention tools. The growing frequency of extreme events such as marine heat waves increases the urgency to consider mitigation and intervention tools that support organismal and ecosystem survival in the immediate future, while global climate mitigation and/or intervention are formulated.

show abstract

Section: What Can We Learn From Recent Climate Extremes?supporting

confidence: 61%

How do we overcome abrupt degradation of marine ecosystems and meet the challenge of heat waves and climate extremes?

Ainsworth

Hurd

Gates

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Here, we found that the reef with the greatest water flow, diel physicochemical variation, and distance from land resulted in higher coral growth and fitness. Sufficient water flow is generally beneficial for coral performance across reef systems ( 70 ), and both flow and temperature variability can mitigate bleaching responses ( 21 , 36 , 70 ), indicating that these may be generalizable environmental characteristics of reefs that promote coral fitness and bleaching resistance (although, for exception, see ref. 37 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coral bleaching response is unaltered following acclimatization to reefs with distinct environmental conditions

Barott

Huffmyer

Davidson

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Urgent action is needed to prevent the demise of coral reefs as the climate crisis leads to an increasingly warmer and more acidic ocean. Propagating climate change–resistant corals to restore degraded reefs is one promising strategy; however, empirical evidence is needed to determine whether stress resistance is affected by transplantation beyond a coral’s native reef. Here, we assessed the performance of bleaching-resistant individuals of two coral species following reciprocal transplantation between reefs with distinct pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen, sedimentation, and flow dynamics to determine whether heat stress response is altered following coral exposure to novel physicochemical conditions in situ. Critically, transplantation had no influence on coral heat stress responses, indicating that this trait was relatively fixed. In contrast, growth was highly plastic, and native performance was not predictive of performance in the novel environment. Coral metabolic rates and overall fitness were higher at the reef with higher flow, salinity, sedimentation, and diel fluctuations of pH and dissolved oxygen, and did not differ between native and cross-transplanted corals, indicating acclimatization via plasticity within just 3 mo. Conversely, cross-transplants at the second reef had higher fitness than native corals, thus increasing the fitness potential of the recipient population. This experiment was conducted during a nonbleaching year, so the potential benefits to recipient population fitness are likely enhanced during bleaching years. In summary, this study demonstrates that outplanting bleaching-resistant corals is a promising tool for elevating the resistance of coral populations to ocean warming.

show abstract

“…loss, expansion and fragmentation of seagrass beds, kelp beds, saltmarshes, and mangroves) (Halpern et al 2019). Across the global tropics, remote sensing data from air-and space-borne sensors have revealed the complex spatial and temporal patterns in the biological responses of corals to marine heat waves (Page et al 2019). Such complex changes emerging at multiple scales justify the application of pattern-oriented scientific methods in attempts to understand and predict the consequences of changing seascape structure on ecological functions (Wu 2019, Bryan-Brown et al 2020 and to identify spatial threshold effects (Yeager et al 2016, Santos et al 2018.…”

Section: How Seascape Ecology Can Help Address Applied Research Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seascape ecology: identifying research priorities for an emerging ocean sustainability science

Pittman

Yates

Bouchet

et al. 2021

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Seascape ecology, the marine-centric counterpart to landscape ecology, is rapidly emerging as an interdisciplinary and spatially explicit ecological science with relevance to marine management, biodiversity conservation, and restoration. While important progress in this field has been made in the past decade, there has been no coherent prioritisation of key research questions to help set the future research agenda for seascape ecology. We used a 2-stage modified Delphi method to solicit applied research questions from academic experts in seascape ecology and then asked respondents to identify priority questions across 9 interrelated research themes using 2 rounds of selection. We also invited senior management/conservation practitioners to prioritise the same research questions. Analyses highlighted congruence and discrepancies in perceived priorities for applied research. Themes related to both ecological concepts and management practice, and those identified as priorities include seascape change, seascape connectivity, spatial and temporal scale, ecosystem-based management, and emerging technologies and metrics. Highest-priority questions (upper tercile) received 50% agreement between respondent groups, and lowest priorities (lower tercile) received 58% agreement. Across all 3 priority tiers, 36 of the 55 questions were within a ±10% band of agreement. We present the most important applied research questions as determined by the proportion of votes received. For each theme, we provide a synthesis of the research challenges and the potential role of seascape ecology. These priority questions and themes serve as a roadmap for advancing applied seascape ecology during, and beyond, the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).

show abstract

Seeking Resistance in Coral Reef Ecosystems: The Interplay of Biophysical Factors and Bleaching Resistance under a Changing Climate

Cited by 31 publications

References 115 publications

How do we overcome abrupt degradation of marine ecosystems and meet the challenge of heat waves and climate extremes?

How do we overcome abrupt degradation of marine ecosystems and meet the challenge of heat waves and climate extremes?

Coral bleaching response is unaltered following acclimatization to reefs with distinct environmental conditions

Seascape ecology: identifying research priorities for an emerging ocean sustainability science

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About