White Kristine N, Weinstein David K, Ohara Taku, Denis Vianney, Montenegro Javier, Reimer James D
Department of Biology, The University of Tampa, Tampa, FL, United States of America.
Graduate School of Engineering and Science, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa, Japan.
PeerJ. 2017 Aug 18;5:e3573. doi: 10.7717/peerj.3573. eCollection 2017.
Very few studies have been conducted on the long-term effects of typhoon damage on mesophotic coral reefs. This study investigates the long-term community dynamics of damage from Typhoon 17 (Jelawat) in 2012 on the coral community of the upper mesophotic Ryugu Reef in Okinawa, Japan. A shift from foliose to bushy coral morphologies between December 2012 and August 2015 was documented, especially on the area of the reef that was previously recorded to be poor in scleractinian genera diversity and dominated by foliose corals. Comparatively, an area with higher diversity of scleractinian coral genera was observed to be less affected by typhoon damage with more stable community structure due to less change in dominant coral morphologies. Despite some changes in the composition of dominant genera, the generally high coverage of the mesophotic coral community is facilitating the recovery of Ryugu Reef after typhoon damage.
关于台风破坏对中光层珊瑚礁长期影响的研究极少。本研究调查了2012年台风17（杰拉华）造成的破坏对日本冲绳中光层龙宫礁上层珊瑚群落的长期群落动态。记录了2012年12月至2015年8月间叶状珊瑚形态向丛生珊瑚形态的转变，特别是在先前记录的石珊瑚属多样性较低且以叶状珊瑚为主的礁区。相比之下，一个石珊瑚属多样性较高的区域受台风破坏影响较小，由于优势珊瑚形态变化较小，群落结构更稳定。尽管优势属的组成有所变化，但中光层珊瑚群落总体较高的覆盖率有助于龙宫礁在台风破坏后恢复。
