Mazzuco Ana Carolina de A, Stelzer Patricia Sarcinelli, Bernardino Angelo F
Department of Oceanography, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil.
PeerJ. 2020 Mar 20;8:e8289. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8289. eCollection 2020.
Modeling and forecasting ocean ecosystems in a changing world will require advances in observational efforts to monitor marine biodiversity. One of the observational challenges in coastal reef ecosystems is to quantify benthic and climate interactions which are key to community dynamics across habitats. Habitat complexity (i.e., substrate rugosity) on intertidal reefs can be an important variable explaining benthic diversity and taxa composition, but the association between substrate and seasonal variability is poorly understood on lateritic reefs in the South Atlantic. We asked if benthic assemblages on intertidal reefs with distinct substrate rugosity would follow similar seasonal patterns of succession following meteo-oceanographic variability in a tropical coastal area of Brazil. We combined an innovative 3D imaging for measuring substrate rugosity with satellite monitoring to monitor spatio-temporal patterns of benthic assemblages. The dataset included monthly in situ surveys of substrate cover and taxon diversity and richness, temporal variability in meteo-oceanographic conditions, and reef structural complexity from four sites on the Eastern Marine Ecoregion of Brazil. Additionally, correlation coefficients between temperature and both benthic diversity and community composition from one year of monitoring were used to project biodiversity trends under future warming scenarios. Our results revealed that benthic diversity and composition on intertidal reefs are strongly regulated by surface rugosity and sea surface temperatures, which control the dominance of macroalgae or corals. Intertidal reef biodiversity was positively correlated with reef rugosity which supports previous assertions of higher regional intertidal diversity on lateritic reefs that offer increased substrate complexity. Predicted warming temperatures in the Eastern Marine Ecoregion of Brazil will likely lead to a dominance of macroalgae taxa over the lateritic reefs and lower overall benthic diversity. Our findings indicate that rugosity is not only a useful tool for biodiversity mapping in reef intertidal ecosystems but also that spatial differences in rugosity would lead to very distinct biogeographic and temporal patterns. This study offers a unique baseline of benthic biodiversity on coastal marine habitats that is complementary to worldwide efforts to improve monitoring and management of coastal reefs.
在不断变化的世界中对海洋生态系统进行建模和预测，将需要在监测海洋生物多样性的观测工作方面取得进展。沿海珊瑚礁生态系统的观测挑战之一是量化底栖生物与气候的相互作用，这是跨生境群落动态的关键。潮间带珊瑚礁的栖息地复杂性（即基质粗糙度）可能是解释底栖生物多样性和分类群组成的一个重要变量，但在南大西洋的红土珊瑚礁上，基质与季节变化之间的关联却鲜为人知。我们研究了在巴西热带沿海地区，具有不同基质粗糙度的潮间带珊瑚礁上的底栖生物组合是否会遵循类似的季节性演替模式，该模式受海洋气象变化影响。我们将用于测量基质粗糙度的创新3D成像与卫星监测相结合，以监测底栖生物组合的时空模式。数据集包括对基质覆盖、分类群多样性和丰富度的每月实地调查、海洋气象条件的时间变化，以及巴西东部海洋生态区四个地点的珊瑚礁结构复杂性。此外，利用一年监测中温度与底栖生物多样性和群落组成之间的相关系数，来预测未来变暖情景下的生物多样性趋势。我们的结果表明，潮间带珊瑚礁上的底栖生物多样性和组成受到表面粗糙度和海表面温度的强烈调节，这两者控制着大型藻类或珊瑚的优势地位。潮间带珊瑚礁生物多样性与珊瑚礁粗糙度呈正相关，这支持了之前关于红土珊瑚礁上区域潮间带多样性较高的论断，因为红土珊瑚礁提供了更高的基质复杂性。预计巴西东部海洋生态区的气温上升可能会导致大型藻类分类群在红土珊瑚礁上占据主导地位，并降低整体底栖生物多样性。我们的研究结果表明，粗糙度不仅是珊瑚礁潮间带生态系统生物多样性测绘的有用工具，而且粗糙度的空间差异会导致非常不同的生物地理和时间模式。这项研究提供了沿海海洋栖息地底栖生物多样性的独特基线，与全球改善沿海珊瑚礁监测和管理的努力相辅相成。
