Demographic Approaches to Community Dynamics: A Coral Reef Example

Ecology ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 77 (7) ◽  
pp. 2256-2260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence P. Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reef ◽  
Community Dynamics

Special Issue on Community Dynamics of Coral Reef Algae

Coral Reefs ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 302-302
Author(s):  
Not Available Not Available
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reef ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Coral Reef Algae

scholarly journals Coral reefs in crisis: The reliability of deep-time food web reconstructions as analogs for the present

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter D. Roopnarine ◽  
Ashley A. Dineen
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reef ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Ecosystem Change ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Deep Time ◽  
Web Studies ◽  
Dietary Breadth ◽  
Caribbean Coral Reef

AbstractOngoing anthropogenic alterations of the biosphere have shifted emphasis in conservation biology from individual species to entire ecosystems. Modern measures of ecosystem change, however, lack the extended temporal scales necessary to forecast future change under increasingly stressful environmental conditions. Accordingly, the assessment and reconstruction of ecosystem dynamics during previous intervals of environmental stress and climate change in deep time has garnered increasing attention. The nature of the fossil record, though, raises questions about the difficulty of reconstructing paleocommunity and paleoecosystem-level dynamics. In this study, we assess the reliability of such reconstructions by simulating the fossilization of a highly threatened and disturbed modern ecosystem, a Caribbean coral reef. Using a high-resolution coral reef food web from Jamaica, we compare system structures of the modern and simulated fossil reefs, including guild richness and evenness, trophic level distribution, predator dietary breadth, food chain lengths, and modularity. Results indicate that despite the loss of species, guilds, and trophospecies interactions, particularly zooplankton and other soft-bodied organisms, the overall guild diversity, structure, and modularity of the reef ecosystem remained intact. These results have important implications for the integrity of fossil food web studies and coral reef conservation, demonstrating that fossil reef communities can be used to understand reef community dynamics during past regimes of environmental change.

scholarly journals Seasonal regulation of herbivory and nutrient effects on macroalgal recruitment and succession in a Florida coral reef

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e2643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Duran ◽  
Ligia Collado-Vides ◽  
Deron E. Burkepile
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Coral Reef ◽  
Nutrient Availability ◽  
Nutrient Enrichment ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Species Abundance ◽  
Warm Season ◽  
Winter Mortality ◽  
Exclusion Experiment ◽  
Herbivore Exclusion

Herbivory and nutrient enrichment are drivers of benthic dynamics of coral reef macroalgae; however, their impact may vary seasonally. In this study we evaluated the effects of herbivore pressure, nutrient availability and potential propagule supply on seasonal recruitment and succession of macroalgal communities on a Florida coral reef. Recruitment tiles, replaced every three months, and succession tiles, kept in the field for nine months, were established in an ongoing factorial nutrient enrichment-herbivore exclusion experiment. The ongoing experiment had already created very different algal communities across the different herbivory and nutrient treatments. We tracked algal recruitment, species richness, and species abundance through time. Our results show seasonal variation in the effect of herbivory and nutrient availability on recruitment of coral reef macroalgae. In the spring, when there was higher macroalgal species richness and abundance of recruits, herbivory appeared to have more control on macroalgal community structure than did nutrients. In contrast, there was no effect of either herbivory or nutrient enrichment on macroalgal communities on recruitment tiles in cooler seasons. The abundance of recruits on tiles was positively correlated with the abundance of algal in the ongoing, established experiment, suggesting that propagule abundance is likely a strong influence on algal recruitment and early succession. Results of the present study suggest that abundant herbivorous fishes control recruitment and succession of macroalgae, particularly in the warm season when macroalgal growth is higher. However, herbivory appears less impactful on algal recruitment and community dynamics in cooler seasons. Ultimately, our data suggest that the timing of coral mortality (e.g., summer vs. winter mortality) and freeing of benthic space may strongly influence the dynamics of algae that colonize open space.

scholarly journals Combining agent-based, trait-based and demographic approaches to model coral-community dynamics

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Sylvain Carturan ◽  
Jason Pither ◽  
Jean-Philippe Maréchal ◽  
Corey JA Bradshaw ◽  
Lael Parrott
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reef ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Coral Community ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Virtual Experiments ◽  
Coral Reef Ecosystems ◽  
Novel Model

The complexity of coral-reef ecosystems makes it challenging to predict their dynamics and resilience under future disturbance regimes. Models for coral-reef dynamics do not adequately account for the high functional diversity exhibited by corals. Models that are ecologically and mechanistically detailed are therefore required to simulate the ecological processes driving coral reef dynamics. Here, we describe a novel model that includes processes at different spatial scales, and the contribution of species’ functional diversity to benthic-community dynamics. We calibrated and validated the model to reproduce observed dynamics using empirical data from Caribbean reefs. The model exhibits realistic community dynamics, and individual population dynamics are ecologically plausible. A global sensitivity analysis revealed that the number of larvae produced locally, and interaction-induced reductions in growth rate are the parameters with the largest influence on community dynamics. The model provides a platform for virtual experiments to explore diversity-functioning relationships in coral reefs.

scholarly journals Intrageneric differences in the effects of acute temperature exposure on competitive behaviour of damselfishes

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7320
Author(s):  
Donald T. Warren ◽  
Mark I. McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Coral Reef ◽  
Aggressive Behaviour ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Reef Fishes ◽  
Thermal Fluctuations ◽  
Sympatric Species ◽  
Competitive Interactions ◽  
Effect Of Temperature ◽  
Change Models

Projected increases in global temperatures brought on by climate change threaten to disrupt many biological and ecological processes. Tropical ectotherms, like many fishes, can be particularly susceptible to temperature change as they occupy environments with narrow thermal fluctuations. While climate change models predict temperatures to increase over decades, thermal fluctuations are already experienced on a seasonal scale, which may affect the ability to capture and defend resources across a thermal gradient. For coral reef fish, losers of competitive interactions are often more vulnerable to predation, and this pressure is strongest just after settlement. Competitive interactions may determine future success for coral reef fishes, and understanding how temperature experienced during settlement can influence such interactions will give insight to community dynamics in a future warmer world. We tested the effect of increased temperatures on intraspecific competitive interactions of two sympatric species of reef damselfish, the blue damselfish Pomacentrus nagasakiensis, and the whitetail damselfish Pomacentrus chrysurus. Juvenile fishes were exposed to one of four temperature treatments, ranging from 26–32 °C, for seven days then placed into competitive arenas where aggressive interactions were recorded between sized matched individuals within each species. While there was no apparent effect of temperature treatment on aggressive behaviour for P. chrysurus, we observed up to a four-fold increase in aggression scores for P. nagasakiensis with increasing temperature. Results suggest that temperature experienced as juveniles can impact aggressive behaviour; however, species-specific thermal tolerances led to behavioural affects that differ among closely related species. Differential thermal tolerance among species may cause restructuring of the interaction network that underlies the structure of reef assemblages.

scholarly journals A spatially explicit and mechanistic model for exploring coral reef dynamics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno S. Carturan ◽  
Jean-Philippe Maréchal ◽  
Corey J. A. Bradshaw ◽  
Jason Pither ◽  
Lael Parrott
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reef ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Mechanistic Model ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Virtual Experiments ◽  
Coral Reef Ecosystems ◽  
Novel Model

AbstractThe complexity of coral-reef ecosystems makes it challenging to predict their dynamics and resilience under future disturbance regimes. Models for coral-reef dynamics do not adequately accounts for the high functional diversity exhibited by corals. Models that are ecologically and mechanistically detailed are therefore required to simulate the ecological processes driving coral reef dynamics. Here we describe a novel model that includes processes at different spatial scales, and the contribution of species’ functional diversity to benthic-community dynamics. We calibrated and validated the model to reproduce observed dynamics using empirical data from Caribbean reefs. The model exhibits realistic community dynamics, and individual population dynamics are ecologically plausible. A global sensitivity analysis revealed that the number of larvae produced locally, and interaction-induced reductions in growth rate are the parameters with the largest influence on community dynamics. The model provides a platform for virtual experiments to explore diversity-functioning relationships in coral reefs.

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