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Further Flattening of a Degraded, Turbid Reef System Following a Severe Coral Bleaching Event

Andrew G. Bauman, Fraser Januchowski-Hartley Orcid Logo, Aaron Teo, Peter A. Todd

Frontiers in Marine Science, Volume: 9

Swansea University Author: Fraser Januchowski-Hartley Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.3389/fmars.2022.910085

Abstract

Increasing incidence of severe coral bleaching events caused by climate change is contributing to extensive coral losses, shifts in species composition and widespread declines in the physical structure of coral reef ecosystems. With these ongoing changes to coral communities and the concomitant flat...

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Published in: Frontiers in Marine Science
ISSN: 2296-7745
Published: Frontiers Media SA 2022
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60965
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With these ongoing changes to coral communities and the concomitant flattening of reef structural complexity, understanding the links between coral composition and structural complexity in maintaining ecosystem functions and processes is of critical importance. Here, we document the impacts of the 2016 global-scale coral bleaching event on seven coral reefs in Singapore; a heavily degraded, turbid reef system. Using a combination of field-based surveys, we examined changes in coral cover, composition and structural complexity before, during and after the 2016 bleaching event. We also quantified differential bleaching responses and mortality among coral taxa and growth forms using a bleaching response index. Elevated SSTs induced moderate to severe coral bleaching across reefs in Singapore in July 2016, but low overall coral mortality (~12% of colonies). However, we observed high bleaching prevalence and post-bleaching mortality of the three most abundant coral genera (Merulina, Pachyseris and Pectinia), all generalists, declined significantly across reefs between March and November 2016. Four months post-bleaching (November 2016), small-scale structural complexity declined across all Singaporean reefs and no moderately complex reefs remained. Importantly, reductions in structural complexity occurred across reefs with a large range of live coral cover (19&#x2013;62%) and was linked to the loss of dominant coral genera with low-profile foliose-laminar growth forms which resulted in flatter, less structurally complex reefs. And while generalist coral taxa remain highly competitive within Singapore&#x2019;s reef environment, they may not have the capacity to maintain structural complexity or ensure the persistence of other reef functions, even within communities with high coral cover. 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spelling 2022-09-21T12:56:12.2166426 v2 60965 2022-08-30 Further Flattening of a Degraded, Turbid Reef System Following a Severe Coral Bleaching Event 77e5e32d2047f69a621d6d810ff9299b 0000-0003-2468-8199 Fraser Januchowski-Hartley Fraser Januchowski-Hartley true false 2022-08-30 SBI Increasing incidence of severe coral bleaching events caused by climate change is contributing to extensive coral losses, shifts in species composition and widespread declines in the physical structure of coral reef ecosystems. With these ongoing changes to coral communities and the concomitant flattening of reef structural complexity, understanding the links between coral composition and structural complexity in maintaining ecosystem functions and processes is of critical importance. Here, we document the impacts of the 2016 global-scale coral bleaching event on seven coral reefs in Singapore; a heavily degraded, turbid reef system. Using a combination of field-based surveys, we examined changes in coral cover, composition and structural complexity before, during and after the 2016 bleaching event. We also quantified differential bleaching responses and mortality among coral taxa and growth forms using a bleaching response index. Elevated SSTs induced moderate to severe coral bleaching across reefs in Singapore in July 2016, but low overall coral mortality (~12% of colonies). However, we observed high bleaching prevalence and post-bleaching mortality of the three most abundant coral genera (Merulina, Pachyseris and Pectinia), all generalists, declined significantly across reefs between March and November 2016. Four months post-bleaching (November 2016), small-scale structural complexity declined across all Singaporean reefs and no moderately complex reefs remained. Importantly, reductions in structural complexity occurred across reefs with a large range of live coral cover (19–62%) and was linked to the loss of dominant coral genera with low-profile foliose-laminar growth forms which resulted in flatter, less structurally complex reefs. And while generalist coral taxa remain highly competitive within Singapore’s reef environment, they may not have the capacity to maintain structural complexity or ensure the persistence of other reef functions, even within communities with high coral cover. The widespread loss of structurally complexity on Singapore’s degraded coral reefs may further impair ecosystem functioning, potentially compromising the long-term stability of reef biodiversity and productivity. Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science 9 Frontiers Media SA 2296-7745 coral reefs, coral bleaching, structural complexity, habitat loss, Southeast Asia 22 7 2022 2022-07-22 10.3389/fmars.2022.910085 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences COLLEGE CODE SBI Swansea University This research was supported by the AXA Research Fellowship (154-000-649-507) awarded to AB, the European Regional Development Fund Sêr Cymru Fellowship (80761-SU-135) awarded to FJ-H and by the Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF) under the Marine Science Research and Development Programme (MSRDP-P03). 2022-09-21T12:56:12.2166426 2022-08-30T11:12:02.1274737 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Andrew G. Bauman 1 Fraser Januchowski-Hartley 0000-0003-2468-8199 2 Aaron Teo 3 Peter A. Todd 4 60965__25175__dab6bc248b394bf492d311ffeba518ca.pdf 60965_VoR.pdf 2022-09-21T12:55:15.0499122 Output 6769851 application/pdf Version of Record true Copyright © 2022 Bauman, Januchowski-Hartley, Teo and Todd. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Further Flattening of a Degraded, Turbid Reef System Following a Severe Coral Bleaching Event
spellingShingle Further Flattening of a Degraded, Turbid Reef System Following a Severe Coral Bleaching Event
Fraser Januchowski-Hartley
title_short Further Flattening of a Degraded, Turbid Reef System Following a Severe Coral Bleaching Event
title_full Further Flattening of a Degraded, Turbid Reef System Following a Severe Coral Bleaching Event
title_fullStr Further Flattening of a Degraded, Turbid Reef System Following a Severe Coral Bleaching Event
title_full_unstemmed Further Flattening of a Degraded, Turbid Reef System Following a Severe Coral Bleaching Event
title_sort Further Flattening of a Degraded, Turbid Reef System Following a Severe Coral Bleaching Event
author_id_str_mv 77e5e32d2047f69a621d6d810ff9299b
author_id_fullname_str_mv 77e5e32d2047f69a621d6d810ff9299b_***_Fraser Januchowski-Hartley
author Fraser Januchowski-Hartley
author2 Andrew G. Bauman
Fraser Januchowski-Hartley
Aaron Teo
Peter A. Todd
format Journal article
container_title Frontiers in Marine Science
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publishDate 2022
institution Swansea University
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doi_str_mv 10.3389/fmars.2022.910085
publisher Frontiers Media SA
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
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description Increasing incidence of severe coral bleaching events caused by climate change is contributing to extensive coral losses, shifts in species composition and widespread declines in the physical structure of coral reef ecosystems. With these ongoing changes to coral communities and the concomitant flattening of reef structural complexity, understanding the links between coral composition and structural complexity in maintaining ecosystem functions and processes is of critical importance. Here, we document the impacts of the 2016 global-scale coral bleaching event on seven coral reefs in Singapore; a heavily degraded, turbid reef system. Using a combination of field-based surveys, we examined changes in coral cover, composition and structural complexity before, during and after the 2016 bleaching event. We also quantified differential bleaching responses and mortality among coral taxa and growth forms using a bleaching response index. Elevated SSTs induced moderate to severe coral bleaching across reefs in Singapore in July 2016, but low overall coral mortality (~12% of colonies). However, we observed high bleaching prevalence and post-bleaching mortality of the three most abundant coral genera (Merulina, Pachyseris and Pectinia), all generalists, declined significantly across reefs between March and November 2016. Four months post-bleaching (November 2016), small-scale structural complexity declined across all Singaporean reefs and no moderately complex reefs remained. Importantly, reductions in structural complexity occurred across reefs with a large range of live coral cover (19–62%) and was linked to the loss of dominant coral genera with low-profile foliose-laminar growth forms which resulted in flatter, less structurally complex reefs. And while generalist coral taxa remain highly competitive within Singapore’s reef environment, they may not have the capacity to maintain structural complexity or ensure the persistence of other reef functions, even within communities with high coral cover. The widespread loss of structurally complexity on Singapore’s degraded coral reefs may further impair ecosystem functioning, potentially compromising the long-term stability of reef biodiversity and productivity.
published_date 2022-07-22T04:19:30Z
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