The carbonate mineralogy and distribution of habitat-forming deep-sea corals in the southwest pacific region

Bostock, Helen C.; Tracey, Dianne M.; Currie, Kim; Dunbar, Gavin B.; Handler, Monica R.; Fletcher, S. E. Mikaloff; Smith, Abigail M.; Williams, Michael

doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2015.02.008

Cited by 43 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…However, subsequent work has shown that L. pertusa can acclimatize (i.e., maintain considerable calcification) to declining aragonite levels modifying skeletal structure and skeletal strength (Form and Riebesell, 2012;Hennige et al, 2015). Observations of deep-sea corals in undersaturated waters from the SW Pacific also suggest some speciesspecific tolerance, however growth rates are extremely low and in under-saturated conditions dead coral skeletons dissolve rapidly (Bostock et al, 2015;Thresher et al, 2015). Whether coldwater corals will be able to adjust to rapid warming and ocean acidification projected for the coming century is unknown.…”

Section: Biological Responses To a Rapidly Warming And Acidifying Oceanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coral Reef Ecosystems under Climate Change and Ocean Acidification

et al. 2017

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Coral reefs are found in a wide range of environments, where they provide food and habitat to a large range of organisms as well as providing many other ecological goods and services. Warm-water coral reefs, for example, occupy shallow sunlit, warm, and alkaline waters in order to grow and calcify at the high rates necessary to build and maintain their calcium carbonate structures. At deeper locations (40-150 m), "mesophotic" (low light) coral reefs accumulate calcium carbonate at much lower rates (if at all in some cases) yet remain important as habitat for a wide range of organisms, including those important for fisheries. Finally, even deeper, down to 2,000 m or more, the so-called "cold-water" coral reefs are found in the dark depths. Despite their importance, coral reefs are facing significant challenges from human activities including pollution, over-harvesting, physical destruction, and climate change. In the latter case, even lower greenhouse gas emission scenarios (such as Representative Concentration Pathway RCP 4.5) are likely drive the elimination of most warm-water coral reefs by 2040-2050. Cold-water corals are also threatened by warming temperatures and ocean acidification although evidence of the direct effect of climate change is less clear. Evidence that coral reefs can adapt at rates which are sufficient for them to keep up with rapid ocean warming and acidification is minimal, especially given that corals are long-lived and hence have slow rates of evolution. Conclusions that coral reefs will migrate to higher latitudes as they warm are equally unfounded, with the observations of tropical species appearing at high latitudes "necessary but not sufficient" evidence that entire coral reef ecosystems are shifting. On the contrary, coral reefs are likely to degrade rapidly over the next 20 years, presenting fundamental challenges for the 500 million people who derive food, income, coastal protection, and a range of other services from coral reefs. Unless rapid advances to the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement occur over the next decade, hundreds of millions of people are likely to face increasing amounts of poverty and social disruption, and, in some cases, regional insecurity.

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Section: Biological Responses To a Rapidly Warming And Acidifying Oceanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coral Reef Ecosystems under Climate Change and Ocean Acidification

et al. 2017

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“…;Roberts et al 2009. Best studied are the S. variabilis occurrences from the SW Pacific in water depths ranging from 220 to 2165 m with densest aggregations between 1000 and 1300 m off New Zealand and Australia (Koslow et al 2001;Tracey et al 2011: Bostock et al 2015Fallon et al 2014;Thresher et al 2014). The environmental controlling factors of modern S. variabilis reefs are not well studied.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solenosmilia variabilis-bearing cold-water coral mounds off Brazil

et al. 2019

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Cold-water corals (CWC), dominantly Desmophyllum pertusum (previously Lophelia pertusa), and their mounds have been in the focus of marine research during the last two decades; however, little is known about the mound-forming capacity of other CWC species. Here, we present new 230 Th/U age constraints of the relatively rarely studied framework-building CWC Solenosmilia variabilis from a mound structure off the Brazilian margin combined with computed tomography (CT) acquisition. Our results show that S. variabilis can also contribute to mound formation, but reveal coral-free intervals of hemipelagic sediment deposits, which is in contrast to most of the previously studied CWC mound structures. We demonstrate that S. variabilis only occurs in short episodes of \ 4 kyr characterized by a coral content of up to 31 vol%. In particular, it is possible to identify distinct clusters of enhanced aggradation rates (AR) between 54 and 80 cm ka-1. The determined AR are close to the maximal growth rates of individual S. variabilis specimens, but are still up to one order of magnitude smaller than the AR of D. pertusum mounds. Periods of enhanced S. variabilis AR predominantly fall into glacial periods and glacial terminations that were characterized by a 60-90 m lower sea Electronic supplementary material

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“…Actually, such models are recognized to be fundamental when designing management plans for protecting vulnerable marine ecosystems from anthropogenic impacts such as fishing (Ardron et al, 2014). Furthermore, oxygen levels, temperature, aragonite and calcite concentrations at the seabed have been important parameter for explaining the distribution of black corals (Yesson et al, in press) and other cold-water coral species (e.g., Davies and Guinotte, 2011;Yesson et al, 2012;Bostock et al, 2015). Our compilation of the environmental conditions at the seabed will therefore, facilitate future effort to predict the potential habitat of those key structuring fauna or explain potential biogeographic patterns in the region.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overview of the Ocean Climatology and Its Variability in the Azores Region of the North Atlantic Including Environmental Characteristics at the Seabed

et al. 2017

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Obtaining a comprehensive knowledge of the spatial and temporal variations of the environmental factors characterizing the Azores region is essential for conservation and management purposes. Although many studies are available for the region, there is a need for a general overview of the best available information. Here, we assembled a comprehensive collection of environmental data and briefly described the ocean climatology and its variability in the Azores. Data sources used in this study included remote sensing oceanographic data for 2003-2013 (sea surface temperature, chlorophyll-a concentration, particulate inorganic carbon, and particulate organic carbon), derived oceanographic data (primary productivity and North Atlantic oscillation index) for [2003][2004][2005][2006][2007][2008][2009][2010][2011][2012][2013], and in situ data (temperature, salinity, oxygen, phosphate, nitrate and silicate) obtained from the World Ocean Atlas 2013. We have produced 78 geographic datasets of environmental data for the Azores region that were deposited at the World Data Center Pangaea and also made available at the SIGMAR Azores website. As with previous studies, our results confirmed a high spatial, seasonal and inter-annual variability of the marine environment in the Azores region, typical of mid-latitudes. For example, lower sea surface temperature was found in the northern part of the study area coinciding with higher values for chlorophyll-a concentration, net primary production (NPP), and particulate organic and inorganic carbon. Higher values for some of these parameters were also found on island slopes and some seamounts. Compiled data on the environmental conditions at near-seabed revealed some notable variations across the study area (e.g., oxygen and nutrients) and with depth (e.g., temperature, salinity, and oxygen). Knowledge of these patterns will help improve our understanding of the distribution of many deep-sea organisms such as fish, cold-water corals, and sponges, thereby supporting the implementation of marine spatial planning and other management measures. It should be noted that the assembled datasets suffer from a number of Amorim et al. Ocean Climatology in the Azores limitations related to the accuracy of remote sensing and global bathymetry data, or to the limited and unevenly distributed collection of environmental observations. Accordingly, an effective observing system for detecting oceanic change with adequate accuracy and precision is still required.

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The carbonate mineralogy and distribution of habitat-forming deep-sea corals in the southwest pacific region

Cited by 43 publications

References 70 publications

Coral Reef Ecosystems under Climate Change and Ocean Acidification

Coral Reef Ecosystems under Climate Change and Ocean Acidification

Solenosmilia variabilis-bearing cold-water coral mounds off Brazil

Overview of the Ocean Climatology and Its Variability in the Azores Region of the North Atlantic Including Environmental Characteristics at the Seabed

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