scholarly journals The transformation of Caribbean coral communities since humans

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie L. Cramer ◽  
Mary K. Donovan ◽  
Jeremy B. C. Jackson ◽  
Benjamin J. Greenstein ◽  
Chelsea A. Korpanty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Caribbean Coral ◽  
Coral Communities

scholarly journals An emerging coral disease outbreak decimated Caribbean coral populations and reshaped reef functionality

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip ◽  
F. González-Barrios ◽  
Esmeralda Pérez-Cervantes ◽  
Ana Molina-Hernandez ◽  
Nuria Estrada-Saldívar
Keyword(s):  
Coral Species ◽  
Coral Disease ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Carbonate Production ◽  
Coral Abundance ◽  
Caribbean Coral ◽  
Coral Communities ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Physical Functionality

Abstract Diseases are major drivers of the deterioration of coral reefs, linked to major declines in coral abundance, reef functionality, and reef-related ecosystems services1-3. An outbreak of a new disease is currently rampaging through the populations of the remaining reef-building corals across the Caribbean region. The outbreak was first reported in Florida in 2014 and reached the northern Mesoamerican reef by summer 2018, where it spread across the ~ 450-km reef system only in a few months4. Rapid infection was generalized across all sites and mortality rates ranged from 94% to < 10% among the 21 afflicted coral species. This single event further modified the coral communities across the region by increasing the relative dominance of weedy corals and reducing reef functionality, both in terms of functional diversity and calcium carbonate production. This emergent disease is likely to become the most lethal disturbance ever recorded in the Caribbean, and it will likely result in the onset of a new functional regime where key reef-building and complex branching acroporids (a genus apparently unaffected) will once again become conspicuous structural features in reef systems with yet even lower levels of physical functionality.

scholarly journals Microbial dysbiosis reflects disease resistance in diverse coral species

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J. MacKnight ◽  
Kathryn Cobleigh ◽  
Danielle Lasseigne ◽  
Andia Chaves-Fonnegra ◽  
Alexandra Gutting ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Disease Susceptibility ◽  
Coral Species ◽  
Disease Incidence ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Life History Strategies ◽  
Microbial Dysbiosis ◽  
White Plague ◽  
Caribbean Coral ◽  
Microbial Responses ◽  
Coral Communities

AbstractDisease outbreaks have caused significant declines of keystone coral species. While forecasting disease outbreaks based on environmental factors has progressed, we still lack a comparative understanding of susceptibility among coral species that would help predict disease impacts on coral communities. The present study compared the phenotypic and microbial responses of seven Caribbean coral species with diverse life-history strategies after exposure to white plague disease. Disease incidence and lesion progression rates were evaluated over a seven-day exposure. Coral microbiomes were sampled after lesion appearance or at the end of the experiment if no disease signs appeared. A spectrum of disease susceptibility was observed among the coral species that corresponded to microbial dysbiosis. This dysbiosis promotes greater disease susceptiblity in coral perhaps through different tolerant thresholds for change in the microbiome. The different disease susceptibility can affect coral’s ecological function and ultimately shape reef ecosystems.

Larval dispersal of Pocillopora damicornis at high latitude coral communities

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Hanny Tioho
Keyword(s):  
Larval Dispersal ◽  
Scleractinian Coral ◽  
Pocillopora Damicornis ◽  
Northern Limit ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Coral Communities ◽  
Limited Dispersal ◽  
Dispersal Distances ◽  
Latitudinal Range ◽  
Outer Area

In order to elucidate the patterns of dispersal in scleractinian coral Pocillopora damicornis near the northern limit of its latitudinal range, a total of 50 colonies (15-25 cm in diameter) of this coral were collected from Ooshima Island, Japan, and transplanted within one hour to the area of Satsuki, where they were not present before. Three concentric areas were established such as; the parental area (PA), intermediate area (IA) and outer area (OA). A total of 831 new corals were found in 1997 while 54.3% of these occurred in PA, 30.5% in IA and 15.1% in OA. In 1998, 52.3% of recruits settled in PA, 30.5% in IA and 17.2% in OA. A significant difference in the density of recruits was found among three areas, but recruit density was not significantly different between years and there was no interaction between area and year. There was no significant difference in the number of recruits among different directions, indicating no tendency for larvae to be concentrated in one particular direction. The present study suggests that the planulae of P. damicornis have limited dispersal distances at high-latitudes© Untuk menjelaskan pola penyebaran karang scleractinia Pocillopora damicornis yang berada di batas Utara penyebarannya, total 50 koloni (15-25 cm) dari karang ini dikumpulkan dari Pulau Ooshima, Jepang, dan di transplantasikan dalam waktu satu jam ke daerah Satsuki yang tidak ditemukan jenis ini. Tiga daerah ditetapkan yaitu, Daerah Induk (PA), Daerah Tengah (IA), dan Daerah Luar (OA). Sebanyak 831 karang baru ditemukan pada tahun 1997, sementara 54,3% ditemukan di PA, 30,5% di IA dan 15,1% di OA. Pada tahun 1998, 52,3% ditemukan di PA, 30,5% di IA, dan 17,2% di OA. Ditemukan perbedaan yang signifikan untuk kepadatan antara ketiga daerah tersebut, tetapi tidak ada perbedaan yang signifikan antar tahun dan tidak ada interaksi antara daerah dan tahun. Tidak ada perbedaan yang signifikan dalam jumlah pada arah yang berbeda sehingga hal ini menunjukkan tidak ada kecenderungan bagi larva untuk terkonsentrasi pada satu arah tertentu. Penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa planula P.

scholarly journals Environmental Variation and How its Spatial Structure Influences the Cross-Shelf Distribution of High-Latitude Coral Communities in South Africa

Diversity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean N. Porter ◽  
Michael H. Schleyer
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
High Tide ◽  
Environmental Variation ◽  
Shelf Edge ◽  
Spatial Differences ◽  
Coral Communities

Coral communities display spatial patterns. These patterns can manifest along a coastline as well as across the continental shelf due to ecological interactions and environmental gradients. Several abiotic surrogates for environmental variables are hypothesised to structure high-latitude coral communities in South Africa along and across its narrow shelf and were investigated using a correlative approach that considered spatial autocorrelation. Surveys of sessile communities were conducted on 17 reefs and related to depth, distance to high tide, distance to the continental shelf edge and to submarine canyons. All four environmental variables were found to correlate significantly with community composition, even after the effects of space were removed. The environmental variables accounted for 13% of the variation in communities; 77% of this variation was spatially structured. Spatially structured environmental variation unrelated to the environmental variables accounted for 39% of the community variation. The Northern Reef Complex appears to be less affected by oceanic factors and may undergo less temperature variability than the Central and Southern Complexes; the first is mentioned because it had the lowest canyon effect and was furthest from the continental shelf, whilst the latter complexes had the highest canyon effects and were closest to the shelf edge. These characteristics may be responsible for the spatial differences in the coral communities.

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