Institute for Global Ecology, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2021 Apr 26;16(4):e0249008. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249008. eCollection 2021.
Coral reefs protect islands, coastal areas, and their inhabitants from storm waves and provide essential goods and services to millions of people worldwide. Yet contemporary rates of ocean warming and local disturbances are jeopardizing the reef-building capacity of coral reefs to keep up with rapid rates of sea-level rise. This study compared the reef-building capacity of shallow-water habitats at 142 sites across a potential thermal-stress gradient in the tropical Pacific Ocean. We sought to determine the extent to which habitat differences and environmental variables potentially affect rates of net carbonate production. In general, outer-exposed reefs and lagoonal-patch reefs had higher rates of net carbonate production than nearshore reefs. The study found that thermal anomalies, particularly the intensity of thermal-stress events, play a significant role in reducing net carbonate production-evident as a diminishing trend of net carbonate production from the western to the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The results also showed a latent spatial effect along the same gradient, not explained by thermal stress, suggesting that reefs in the western tropical Pacific Ocean are potentially enhanced by the proximity of reefs in the Coral Triangle-an effect that diminishes with increasing distance and isolation.
珊瑚礁保护岛屿、沿海地区及其居民免受风暴浪的侵袭，并为全球数百万人提供重要的商品和服务。然而，当代海洋变暖的速度和局部干扰正危及珊瑚礁的造礁能力，使其难以跟上海平面快速上升的速度。本研究比较了热带太平洋地区 142 个潜在热应力梯度浅海生境的造礁能力。我们试图确定生境差异和环境变量在多大程度上可能影响净碳酸盐产量的速率。一般来说，外暴露珊瑚礁和泻湖斑块珊瑚礁的净碳酸盐产量高于近岸珊瑚礁。研究发现，热异常，特别是热应激事件的强度，在减少净碳酸盐产量方面起着重要作用——从西太平洋到中太平洋热带地区的净碳酸盐产量呈递减趋势。结果还显示出沿着相同梯度的潜在空间效应，这不能用热应力来解释，这表明西太平洋热带地区的珊瑚礁可能因靠近珊瑚三角地区的珊瑚礁而得到增强——这种效应随着距离和隔离的增加而减弱。
