Three decades of heat stress exposure in Caribbean coral reefs: a new regional delineation to enhance conservation

Muñiz-Castillo, Aarón Israel; Rivera-Sosa, Andrea; Chollett, Iliana; Eakin, C. Mark; Andrade-Gómez, Luisa; McField, Melanie; Arias‐González, Jesús Ernesto

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-47307-0

Cited by 72 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 66 publications

(164 reference statements)

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“…Our results support Muñiz-Castillo et al 's [42] finding that the TCI belong in the Caribbean ecoregion least exposed to heat stress and with the greatest percentage of its area without bleaching and mortality risk. Whereas our results reveal coral color darkening, i.e., statistically-significant shift of mean color distribution from lighter to darker hues, in response to thermal stress offshore of South Caicos Island, the relatively low thermal stress experienced in this region compared with other Caribbean regions more stressed during the 2014-2017 GBE (i.e., Central and eastern Venezuelan, Honduran and Nicaraguan Miskito Cays and nearby islands, etc., [42]), adds important regional context.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Contrasting color loss and restoration in survivors of the 2014–2017 coral bleaching event in the Turks and Caicos Islands

Knipp

Pettijohn

Jadot³

et al. 2020

SN Appl. Sci.

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Coral cover throughout the Caribbean region has declined by approximately 80% since the 1970s (Gardner et al. in Ecology 86(1):174-184, 2005) attributed to a combination of environmental and anthropogenic factors, including ocean acidification, rising sea surface temperatures, increased susceptibility to disease, as well as increased frequency and strength of storms, development stress, and increased sediment and nutrient loads. Three Global Bleaching Events (GBE) coincide directly with El Niño warming phases in El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycle (

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Contrasting color loss and restoration in survivors of the 2014–2017 coral bleaching event in the Turks and Caicos Islands

Knipp

Pettijohn

Jadot³

et al. 2020

SN Appl. Sci.

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“…Coral Reefs trend documented here as well as in the wider Caribbean (Muniz- Castillo et al 2019). A similar pattern of increased coral growth associated with warming has been previously documented on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and Western Australian coral reefs (Lough and Barnes 2000;Cooper et al 2012).…”

Section: Pseudodiploria Strigosasupporting

confidence: 84%

Increasing coral calcification in Orbicella faveolata and Pseudodiploria strigosa at Flower Garden Banks, Gulf of Mexico

et al. 2021

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Coral reefs are globally in decline and western Atlantic reefs have experienced the greatest losses in live coral cover of any region. The Flower Garden Banks (FGB) in the Gulf of Mexico are high-latitude, remote reefs that are an outlier to this trend, as they have maintained coral cover ≥ 50% since at least 1989. Quantifying the long-term trends in coral growth of key reef-building coral species, and the underlying environmental drivers, leads to a better understanding of local sensitivities to past changes that will ultimately allow us to better predict the future of reef growth at FGB. We obtained coral cores and constructed growth records for two of the most abundant hermatypic coral species at FGB, Pseudodiploria strigosa and Orbicella faveolata. Our records cover 57 yrs of growth for P. strigosa (1957–2013) and 45 yrs for O. faveolata (1970–2014). Linear extension and calcification rates of both species have increased significantly, but skeletal density did not change over the respective time periods. Extension and calcification data of both species combined were negatively correlated with the discharge from the Atchafalaya River, but positively correlated with maximum sea surface temperatures (SST). These data provide evidence that runoff from the Atchafalaya River impacts FGB corals and is a major control on coral growth at FGB. The increase in growth at FGB can be attributed to the significant warming trend in maximum monthly SSTs. Given the warming trend and recent increase in severity of bleaching at FGB, the prognosis is that bleaching events will become more deleterious with time, which will lead to a breakdown in the positive relationship between coral growth and maximum SST. This study provides further evidence that some high-latitude, cooler reef sites have experienced a stimulation in coral growth with ocean warming.

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“…In the Caribbean region coral reefs live under elevated sea surface temperature conditions ( Muñiz-Castillo et al, 2019 ) and poor reef-water quality ( Harvell et al, 2007 ; Cooper, Gilmour & Fabricius, 2009 ). At our study site, corals including P. strigosa may also be affected by brown tides from the decomposition of beached Sargassum ( Van Tussenbroek et al, 2017 ; Rodríguez-Martínez et al, 2019 ), further introducing nutrients and organic material into the water.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local dynamics of a white syndrome outbreak and changes in the microbial community associated with colonies of the scleractinian brain coral Pseudodiploria strigosa

Thomé

Rivera-Ortega

Rodríguez-Villalobos

et al. 2021

PeerJ

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Reef corals in the Mexican Reef System have been severely affected by the emergence of a white syndrome that resembles both White Plague II and SCTLD descriptions. Meandroid scleractinian coral species are among the most severely affected. To gain insight into this affliction we conducted a broad study in the brain coral Pseudodiploria strigosa at a rear reef site in the NE Mexican Caribbean. We describe macro and microscopical signals of the disease, characterize the outbreak dynamics, the tissue histopathology, explore immunological responses in the individuals, and compare microbial assemblages associated with the surface mucus layer of healthy and unhealthy colonies. At the study site, the white syndrome outbreak on P. strigosa showed a high incidence rate in summer-fall and a low one in winter, as well as low survival expectation of diseased colonies at the end of the study. After 306 days of observation, out of 96 tracked colonies, eight remained apparently healthy and seven were diseased. No effective resistance to colony disease progression was observed once white syndrome signs developed. Tissue loss rate during the study varied among colonies (mean = 10.8 cm2, s.d. = 7.8 cm2) suggesting a complex relation between causal agents and colony resistance. The deterioration of tissues was evidenced from the basal to the surface body wall of polyps (up to 66% hypertrophy and liquefactive necrosis in unhealthy colonies), implying that microscopic alterations begin before macroscopic signals develop, suggesting this may be a systemic disease. We measured high levels of phenoloxidase (two orders of magnitude higher PO activity than P. strigosa affected by BBD) and antibacterial activity without significant reduction in unhealthy samples from the mucus layer, indicative of an enhanced immunological response. Results showed that opportunistic bacteria dominated damaged colonies, where six genera of the Bacteroidia class were found with significant changes in unhealthy colonies after DeSeq2 analysis. Nevertheless, histological observations did not support infection of the tissues. The opportunistic overload seems to be contained within the mucus layer but may be associated with the mortality of tissues in a yet unclear way. Future research should focus on experimental infections, the tracking of natural infections, and the immunocompetence of corals in the face of environmental pressures due to local, regional, and global impacts. If environmental deterioration is the primary cause of the continuing emergence and re-emergence of lethal coral diseases, as has been proposed by many authors, the only true option to effectively help preserve the coral reef biodiversity and services, is to restore the environmental quality of reef waters at the local scale and reduce greenhouse gases at the global scale.

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Three decades of heat stress exposure in Caribbean coral reefs: a new regional delineation to enhance conservation

Cited by 72 publications

References 66 publications

Contrasting color loss and restoration in survivors of the 2014–2017 coral bleaching event in the Turks and Caicos Islands

Contrasting color loss and restoration in survivors of the 2014–2017 coral bleaching event in the Turks and Caicos Islands

Increasing coral calcification in Orbicella faveolata and Pseudodiploria strigosa at Flower Garden Banks, Gulf of Mexico

Local dynamics of a white syndrome outbreak and changes in the microbial community associated with colonies of the scleractinian brain coral Pseudodiploria strigosa

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