ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University Townsville, Queensland, 4811, Australia.
Department of Parks & Wildlife 17 Dick Perry Ave., Kensington, Perth, Western Australia, 6151, Australia ; Oceans Institute, School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia.
Ecol Evol. 2014 Feb;4(4):337-54. doi: 10.1002/ece3.934. Epub 2014 Jan 13.
Severe climatic disturbance events often have major impacts on coral reef communities, generating cycles of decline and recovery, and in some extreme cases, community-level phase shifts from coral-to algal-dominated states. Benthic habitat changes directly affect reef fish communities, with low coral cover usually associated with low fish diversity and abundance. No-take marine reserves (NTRs) are widely advocated for conserving biodiversity and enhancing the sustainability of exploited fish populations. Numerous studies have documented positive ecological and socio-economic benefits of NTRs; however, the ability of NTRs to ameliorate the effects of acute disturbances on coral reefs has seldom been investigated. Here, we test these factors by tracking the dynamics of benthic and fish communities, including the important fishery species, coral trout (Plectropomus spp.), over 8 years in both NTRs and fished areas in the Keppel Island group, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Two major disturbances impacted the reefs during the monitoring period, a coral bleaching event in 2006 and a freshwater flood plume in 2011. Both disturbances generated significant declines in coral cover and habitat complexity, with subsequent declines in fish abundance and diversity, and pronounced shifts in fish assemblage structure. Coral trout density also declined in response to the loss of live coral, however, the approximately 2:1 density ratio between NTRs and fished zones was maintained over time. The only post-disturbance refuges for coral trout spawning stocks were within the NTRs that escaped the worst effects of the disturbances. Although NTRs had little discernible effect on the temporal dynamics of benthic or fish communities, it was evident that the post-disturbance refuges for coral trout spawning stocks within some NTRs may be critically important to regional-scale population persistence and recovery.
剧烈的气候干扰事件经常对珊瑚礁群落产生重大影响，引发衰退和恢复的循环，并在某些极端情况下，群落水平从珊瑚为主的状态向藻类为主的状态发生转变。底栖生境的变化直接影响着珊瑚礁鱼类群落，低珊瑚覆盖率通常与低鱼类多样性和丰度相关。禁捕海洋保护区（NTR）被广泛倡导用于保护生物多样性和增强受捕捞鱼类种群的可持续性。大量研究记录了 NTR 的积极生态和社会经济效益；然而，NTR 缓解急性干扰对珊瑚礁影响的能力很少被研究。在这里，我们通过跟踪 8 年来 NTR 和受捕捞地区的底栖和鱼类群落的动态，包括重要的渔业物种，珊瑚鲈（Plectropomus spp.），来检验这些因素。在监测期间，两次主要的干扰影响了珊瑚礁，2006 年的珊瑚白化事件和 2011 年的淡水洪水羽流。这两次干扰都导致了珊瑚覆盖率和生境复杂性的显著下降，随后鱼类丰度和多样性下降，鱼类群落结构发生明显变化。珊瑚鲈的密度也随着活珊瑚的丧失而下降，然而，NTR 和受捕捞区之间大约 2:1 的密度比在时间上保持不变。珊瑚鲈产卵群体的唯一灾后避难所是在 NTR 内，这些 NTR 免受干扰的最严重影响。尽管 NTR 对底栖或鱼类群落的时间动态几乎没有明显影响，但显然，NTR 内的一些珊瑚鲈产卵群体的灾后避难所对于区域规模的种群生存和恢复可能至关重要。
