Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA.
Coastal Research Center, Marine Science Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA.
Sci Rep. 2018 May 9;8(1):7338. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-25414-8.
Tropical reefs often undergo acute disturbances that result in landscape-scale loss of coral. Due to increasing threats to coral reefs from climate change and anthropogenic perturbations, it is critical to understand mechanisms that drive recovery of these ecosystems. We explored this issue on the fore reef of Moorea, French Polynesia, following a crown-of-thorns seastar outbreak and cyclone that dramatically reduced cover of coral. During the five-years following the disturbances, the rate of re-establishment of coral cover differed systematically around the triangular-shaped island; coral cover returned most rapidly at sites where the least amount of live coral remained after the disturbances. Although sites differed greatly in the rate of return of coral, all showed at least some evidence of re-assembly to their pre-disturbance community structure in terms of relative abundance of coral taxa and other benthic space holders. The primary driver of spatial variation in recovery was recruitment of sexually-produced corals; subsequent growth and survivorship were less important in shaping the spatial pattern. Our findings suggest that, although the coral community has been resilient, some areas are unlikely to attain the coral cover and taxonomic structure they had prior to the most recent disturbances before the advent of another landscape-scale perturbation.
热带珊瑚礁经常经历剧烈的干扰，导致景观尺度上的珊瑚损失。由于气候变化和人为干扰对珊瑚礁的威胁日益增加，了解这些生态系统恢复的机制至关重要。我们在法属波利尼西亚的莫雷阿岛的前珊瑚礁上进行了这项研究，该岛曾经历过棘冠海星爆发和旋风的干扰，导致珊瑚覆盖率大幅下降。在干扰发生后的五年内，珊瑚覆盖率在三角形岛屿周围的恢复速度存在系统差异；在干扰后活珊瑚残留量最少的地方，珊瑚覆盖率的恢复速度最快。尽管各地点的珊瑚恢复速度差异很大，但从珊瑚分类群和其他底栖空间占有者的相对丰度来看，所有地点都至少表现出了恢复到干扰前群落结构的一些迹象。恢复空间差异的主要驱动因素是有性繁殖珊瑚的繁殖；随后的生长和存活对塑造空间格局的重要性较低。我们的研究结果表明，尽管珊瑚群落具有弹性，但在另一次景观尺度干扰出现之前，一些区域可能无法恢复到最近一次干扰之前的珊瑚覆盖率和分类群结构。
