scholarly journals Origins and Implications of a Primary Crown-of-Thorns Starfish Outbreak in the Southern Great Barrier Reef

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Miller ◽  
Hugh Sweatman ◽  
Alistair Cheal ◽  
Mike Emslie ◽  
Kerryn Johns ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Bleaching ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Coral Cover ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Precise Timing ◽  
Management Measures ◽  
Flooding Events ◽  
Oceanographic Conditions

The crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) is a major predator of hard corals. Repeated COTS outbreaks in the Cairns and Central sections of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) have been responsible for greater declines in coral cover than any other type of disturbance, including cyclones, disease, and coral bleaching. Knowledge of the precise timing and location of primary outbreaks could reveal the initial drivers of outbreaks and so could indicate possible management measures. In the central GBR, COTS outbreaks appear to follow major flooding events, but despite many years of observations, no primary outbreak has ever been unequivocally identified in the central and northern GBR. Here we locate a primary outbreak of COTS on the southern GBR which is not correlated with flooding. Instead it appears to have been the result of a combination of life history traits of COTS and prevailing oceanographic conditions. The hydrodynamic setting implies that the outbreak could disperse larvae to other reefs in the region.

scholarly journals Uncertain Futures: Coral Bleaching and the Loss of Innocence, Beauty and the Sublime

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn Glade-Wright
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Heat Stress ◽  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Bleaching ◽  
Habitat Degradation ◽  
Coral Cover ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Sublime

The works of art in the exhibition Exodus: Coral Bleaching and Heat Stress call attention to habitat degradation due to climate change. Cyclones and bleaching events have resulted in the loss of fifty percent of the coral cover in the Great Barrier Reef over the past three decades. The capacity for art to secure belief through reflective understanding is argued in relation to the moral predicament of anthropogenic climate change. The sublime is recast in the form of the eco-sublime, allowing for new ways of feeling and imaging our place in a world where our innocence in relation to climate change has been lost.

scholarly journals Cumulative impacts across Australia’s Great Barrier Reef: A mechanistic evaluation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yves-Marie Bozec ◽  
Karlo Hock ◽  
Robert A. B. Mason ◽  
Mark E. Baird ◽  
Carolina Castro-Sanguino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Life History ◽  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Multiple Stressors ◽  
Coral Cover ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Environmental Drivers ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Cumulative Impacts

ABSTRACTCumulative impacts assessments on marine ecosystems have been hindered by the difficulty of collecting environmental data and identifying drivers of community dynamics beyond local scales. On coral reefs, an additional challenge is to disentangle the relative influence of multiple drivers that operate at different stages of coral ontogeny. We integrated coral life history, population dynamics and spatially-explicit environmental drivers to assess the relative and cumulative impacts of multiple stressors across 2,300 km of the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Using literature data, we characterized relationships between coral life history processes (reproduction, larval dispersal, recruitment, growth and mortality) and environmental variables. We then simulated coral demographics and stressor impacts at the organism (coral colony) level on >3,800 individual reefs linked by larval connectivity, and exposed to temporally- and spatially-realistic regimes of acute (crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks, cyclones and mass coral bleaching) and chronic (water quality) stressors. Model simulations produced a credible reconstruction of recent (2008–2020) coral trajectories consistent with monitoring observations, while estimating the impacts of each stressor at reef and regional scales. Overall, corals declined by one third across the GBR, from an average ∼29% to ∼19% hard coral cover. By 2020, less than 20% of the GBR had coral cover higher than 30%. Global annual rates of coral mortality were driven by bleaching (48%) ahead of cyclones (41%) and starfish predation (11%). Beyond the reconstructed status and trends, the model enabled the emergence of complex interactions that compound the effects of multiple stressors while promoting a mechanistic understanding of coral cover dynamics. Drivers of coral cover growth were identified; notably, water quality (suspended sediments) was estimated to delay recovery for at least 25% of inshore reefs. Standardized rates of coral loss and recovery allowed the integration of all cumulative impacts to determine the equilibrium cover for each reef. This metric, combined with maps of impacts, recovery potential, water quality thresholds and reef state metrics, facilitates strategic spatial planning and resilience-based management across the GBR.

scholarly journals The role of clouds in coral bleaching events over the Great Barrier Reef

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenhui ZHAO ◽  
Yi HUANG ◽  
Steven T Siems ◽  
Michael J Manton
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Bleaching ◽  
Barrier Reef

scholarly journals Potential for rapid genetic adaptation to warming in a Great Barrier Reef coral

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikhail V. Matz ◽  
Eric A. Treml ◽  
Galina V. Aglyamova ◽  
Madeleine J. H. van Oppen ◽  
Line K. Bay
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Cover ◽  
Reef Coral ◽  
Biophysical Model ◽  
Detectable Effect ◽  
Genetic Adaptation ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Biophysical Modeling ◽  
Adaptive Genetic Variation

AbstractCan genetic adaptation in reef-building corals keep pace with the current rate of sea surface warming? Here we combine population genomic, biophysical modeling, and evolutionary simulations to predict future adaptation of the common coralAcropora milleporaon the Great Barrier Reef. Loss of coral cover in recent decades did not yet have detectable effect on genetic diversity in our species. Genomic analysis of migration patterns closely matched the biophysical model of larval dispersal in favoring the spread of existing heat-tolerant alleles from lower to higher latitudes. Given these conditions we find that standing genetic variation could be sufficient to fuel rapid adaptation ofA. milleporato warming for the next 100-200 years, although random thermal anomalies would drive increasingly severe mortality episodes. However, this adaptation will inevitably cease unless the warming is slowed down, since no realistic mutation rate could replenish adaptive genetic variation fast enough.

scholarly journals Convergence of stakeholders’ environmental threat perceptions following mass coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauric Thiault ◽  
Matthew I. Curnock ◽  
Georgina G. Gurney ◽  
Scott F. Heron ◽  
Nadine A. Marshall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Bleaching ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Threat Perceptions ◽  
Environmental Threat

scholarly journals Long-term shifts in the colony size structure of coral populations along the Great Barrier Reef

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1936) ◽  
pp. 20201432
Author(s):  
Andreas Dietzel ◽  
Michael Bode ◽  
Sean R. Connolly ◽  
Terry P. Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Colony Size ◽  
Size Structure ◽  
Coral Cover ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Reproductive Capacity ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Size Frequency Distribution ◽  
Coral Colony ◽  
Recovery Potential

The age or size structure of a population has a marked influence on its demography and reproductive capacity. While declines in coral cover are well documented, concomitant shifts in the size-frequency distribution of coral colonies are rarely measured at large spatial scales. Here, we document major shifts in the colony size structure of coral populations along the 2300 km length of the Great Barrier Reef relative to historical baselines (1995/1996). Coral colony abundances on reef crests and slopes have declined sharply across all colony size classes and in all coral taxa compared to historical baselines. Declines were particularly pronounced in the northern and central regions of the Great Barrier Reef, following mass coral bleaching in 2016 and 2017. The relative abundances of large colonies remained relatively stable, but this apparent stability masks steep declines in absolute abundance. The potential for recovery of older fecund corals is uncertain given the increasing frequency and intensity of disturbance events. The systematic decline in smaller colonies across regions, habitats and taxa, suggests that a decline in recruitment has further eroded the recovery potential and resilience of coral populations.

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