Research Hub for Coral Reef Ecosystem Functions, College of Science and Engineering and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, 4811, Australia.
Research Hub for Coral Reef Ecosystem Functions, College of Science and Engineering and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, 4811, Australia.
Mar Environ Res. 2022 Jan;173:105537. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2021.105537. Epub 2021 Nov 23.
The world's coral reef ecosystems are steadily being reconfigured by climate change. Lizard Island, on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, offers an opportunity to examine coral reef reassembly following disturbance, as this location has been impacted by consecutive tropical cyclones and consecutive coral bleaching events. Based on repeatedly monitoring the same 349 photoquadrats around Lizard Island over a 5-year period (2016-2021) we revealed that bleaching in 2016 drove a ∼50% reduction in hard coral cover, and a concomitant increase in algal turf cover. From 2018 to 2021, significant increases (>600%) in coral cover were detected on two semi-exposed reefs and were associated with substantial Acropora recruitment. By contrast, fourteen lagoonal and back reefs exhibited virtually no recovery nor Acropora recruitment. Given that the timeframe between disturbances is set to decrease, our results suggest that some recovery is possible immediately after severe cumulative disturbances, although this recovery may be highly spatially heterogenous.
受气候变化影响，全球珊瑚礁生态系统正逐渐发生变化。澳大利亚大堡礁的蜥蜴岛为我们提供了一个研究干扰后珊瑚礁重新组合的机会，因为该地区曾遭受连续热带气旋和珊瑚白化事件的影响。通过在 5 年内（2016 年至 2021 年）反复监测蜥蜴岛周围的 349 个相同的照片网格，我们发现，2016 年的白化现象导致硬珊瑚覆盖率减少了约 50%，同时藻类草皮覆盖率增加。从 2018 年到 2021 年，在两个半暴露的珊瑚礁上发现珊瑚覆盖率显著增加（超过 600%），并伴随着大量的鹿角珊瑚繁殖。相比之下，14 个泻湖和后礁几乎没有恢复，也没有鹿角珊瑚繁殖。鉴于干扰之间的时间间隔将缩短，我们的研究结果表明，在严重的累积干扰后，珊瑚可能会立即得到部分恢复，尽管这种恢复可能具有高度的空间异质性。
