The Eastern Tropical Pacific coral population connectivity and the role of the Eastern Pacific Barrier

Romero-Torres, Mauricio; Treml, Eric A.; Acosta, Alberto; Paz‐García, David A.

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-27644-2

Cited by 41 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Other possible causes of variations in the start times listed in Table 1 include the artifactual absence of coral material of particular ages in particular samples and the uncertainty associated with the dating techniques. Whether La Niña-driven reef shutdown occurred broadly on subtropical reefs of the central Pacific remains a topic of active research, but there is some evidence that increased wave energy tied to ENSO suppressed vertical reef accretion in Hawaii around the time of the 4.2 ka event (Table 1; Grossman and Fletcher, 2004;Rooney et al, 2004). By contrast, the impacts of increased El Niño intensity that followed the putative increase in La Niña activity (Figs.…”

Section: Prospectusmentioning

confidence: 99%

The 4.2 ka event, ENSO, and coral reef development

Toth

Aronson

2019

Clim. Past

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Abstract. Variability of sea-surface temperature related to shifts in the mode of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been implicated as a possible forcing mechanism for the global-scale changes in tropical and subtropical precipitation known as the 4.2 ka event. We review records of coral reef development and paleoceanography from the tropical eastern Pacific (TEP) to evaluate the potential impact of the 4.2 ka event on coral reefs. Our goal is to identify the regional climatic and oceanographic drivers of a 2500-year shutdown of vertical reef accretion in the TEP after 4.2 ka. The 2500-year hiatus represents ∼40 % of the Holocene history of reefs in the TEP and appears to have been tied to increased variability of ENSO. When ENSO variability abated approximately 1.7–1.6 ka, coral populations recovered and vertical accretion of reef framework resumed apace. There is some evidence that the 4.2 ka event suppressed coral growth and reef accretion elsewhere in the Pacific Ocean as well. Although the ultimate causality behind the global 4.2 ka event remains elusive, correlations between shifts in ENSO variability and the impacts of the 4.2 ka event suggest that ENSO could have played a role in climatic changes at that time, at least in the tropical and subtropical Pacific. We outline a framework for testing hypotheses of where and under what conditions ENSO may be expected to have impacted coral reef environments around 4.2 ka. Although most studies of the 4.2 ka event have focused on terrestrial environments, we suggest that understanding the event in marine systems may prove to be the key to deciphering its ultimate cause.

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Section: Prospectusmentioning

confidence: 99%

The 4.2 ka event, ENSO, and coral reef development

Toth

Aronson

2019

Clim. Past

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“…Several recent papers have argued that this particular mode of adaptation is likely to be of major importance for reef‐building corals as they adapt to warming (Bay, Rose, Logan, & Palumbi, 2017; Kleypas et al, 2016; Matz, Treml, Aglyamova, & Bay, 2018). Indeed, all coral species exist across a considerable gradient of temperatures while genetically adapting to local thermal conditions (Bay & Palumbi, 2014; Dixon et al, 2015; Palumbi, Barshis, Traylor‐Knowles, & Bay, 2014) and exchanging migrants over very long distances (Ayre & Hughes, 2004; Baums, Miller, & Hellberg, 2005; Matz et al, 2018; Romero‐Torres, Treml, Acosta, & Paz‐García, 2018), which appears to set the stage perfectly for immigration‐based adaptation (Matz et al, 2018; Torda et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating the potential for coral adaptation to global warming across the Indo‐West Pacific

Matz

Treml

Haller

2020

Global Change Biology

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101

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The potential of reef-building corals to adapt to increasing sea-surface temperatures is often debated but has rarely been comprehensively modeled on a region-wide scale. We used individual-based simulations to model adaptation to warming in a coral metapopulation comprising 680 reefs and representing the whole of the Central Indo-West Pacific. Encouragingly, some reefs-most notably Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan, New Caledonia and the southern half of the Great Barrier Reef-exhibited high capacity for adaptation and, in our model, maintained coral cover even under a rapid "business-as-usual" warming scenario throughout the modeled period (200 years). Higher resilience of these reefs was observed under all tested parameter settings except the models prohibiting selection and/or migration during warming. At the same time, the majority of reefs in the region tended to collapse within the first 100 years of warming. The adaptive potential (odds of maintaining high coral cover) of a given reef could be predicted based on two metrics: the reef's present-day temperature, and the proportion of recruits immigrating from warmer locations. The latter metric explains the most variation in adaptive potential, and significantly correlates with actual coral cover changes observed throughout the region between the 1970s and the early 2000s. These findings will help prioritize coral conservation efforts and plan assisted gene flow interventions to boost the adaptive potential of specific coral populations. K E Y W O R D S adaptation, assisted gene flow, climate change, individual-based modeling, metapopulation S U PP O RTI N G I N FO R M ATI O N Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section.

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“…The resilience of the coral reefs of Isla del Coco is a key factor for the conservation of the coral reefs of the Pacific of Costa Rica and other regions of the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP). A recent study determined that this island is a possible source of larval export for other ETP reefs (Romero-Torres, Treml, Acosta, & Paz-García, 2018), thus the resilience of these corals amplifies the sites' importance in seeding other locations with bleaching-resistant corals. In addition to this, it is important to mention the key role of the changes in the clades of more resistant zooxanthellae (clade D) that have been able to occur in the reefs of Costa Rica, as has been determined for Panama and the Galapagos Islands (Baker, Starger, McClanahan, & Glynn, 2004;Cunning, Glynn, & Baker, 2013;Cunning et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of El Niño 2015-2016 on the coral reefs of the Pacific of Costa Rica: the potential role of marine protection

Alvarado

Sánchez-Noguera

Arias‐Godínez

et al. 2020

RBT

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Introduction: El Niño 2015-2016 was considered one of the most severe worldwide, causing the third global event of coral bleaching. Previous high-intensity El Niño events (1982-83 and 1997-98) caused high coral mortalities and deterioration of coral reef structures along the Eastern Tropical Pacific, affecting both ecosystem and associated economical activities. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the impact of the most recent El Niño event on coral reefs from Cocos Island and the Pacific coast of southern Costa Rica. Methods: Coral reefs were surveyed before (2013-2014) and after (2016) the disturbance, using underwater visual censuses within belt transects, to quantify the bottom coverage at different depths. Results: In general, average live coral cover decreased 50% after the 2015-2016 El Niño event, with Golfo Dulce being the most affected area with 75% of live coral cover decline. However, in certain localities such as Isla del Coco and Isla del Caño, the effects of El Niño were apparently minimal, since no substantial loss of live coral cover was detected. Differences in the level of deterioration found between coral reefs could be related to several factors, including the age of the protected area, the distance to centers of human population, and the effectiveness in the application of management strategies. Conclusions: The synergistic impact of the 2015-16 El Niño event and other stressors (e.g. illegal fishing and unregulated coastal human development) increased the levels of disturbance on coral reefs, threatening their structure and functioning. It is necessary to strengthen conservation strategies in order to improve the resilience of coral reefs to the impact of natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Concrete actions such as coral reef restoration, marine environmental education, and marine spatial planning must become important tools to maintain the good health of coral reefs and ensure the sustainability of the goods and services provided by these ecosystems.

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The Eastern Tropical Pacific coral population connectivity and the role of the Eastern Pacific Barrier

Cited by 41 publications

References 74 publications

The 4.2 ka event, ENSO, and coral reef development

The 4.2 ka event, ENSO, and coral reef development

Estimating the potential for coral adaptation to global warming across the Indo‐West Pacific

Impact of El Niño 2015-2016 on the coral reefs of the Pacific of Costa Rica: the potential role of marine protection

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