Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
Department of Freshwater and Marine Ecology (FAME), Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Glob Chang Biol. 2022 Mar;28(6):1956-1971. doi: 10.1111/gcb.16034. Epub 2021 Dec 24.
Non-random community changes are becoming more frequent in many ecosystems. In coral reefs, changes towards communities dominated by other than hard corals are increasing in frequency, with severe impacts on ecosystem functioning and provision of ecosystem services. Although new research suggests that a variety of alternative communities (i.e. not dominated by hard corals) exist, knowledge on the global diversity and functioning of alternative coral reef benthic communities, especially those not dominated by algae, remains scattered. In this systematic review and meta-analysis of 523 articles, we analyse the different coral reef benthic community changes reported to date and discuss the advantages and limitations of the methods used to study these changes. Furthermore, we used field cover data (1116 reefs from the ReefCheck database) to explore the biogeographic and latitudinal patterns in dominant benthic organisms. We found a mismatch between literature focus on coral-algal changes (over half of the studies analysed) and observed global natural patterns. We identified strong biogeographic patterns, with the largest and most biodiverse biogeographic regions (Western and Central Indo-Pacific) presenting previously overlooked soft-coral-dominated communities as the most abundant alternative community. Finally, we discuss the potential biases associated with methods that overlook ecologically important cryptobenthic communities and the potential of new technological advances in improving monitoring efforts. As coral reef communities inevitably and swiftly change under changing ocean conditions, there is an urgent need to better understand the distribution, dynamics as well as the ecological and societal impacts of these new communities.
在许多生态系统中，非随机的群落变化变得越来越频繁。在珊瑚礁中，硬珊瑚以外的群落主导的变化频率正在增加，这对生态系统功能和生态系统服务的提供产生了严重影响。尽管新的研究表明存在各种替代群落（即不以硬珊瑚为主导），但关于替代珊瑚礁底栖群落的全球多样性和功能的知识仍然分散。在这项对 523 篇文章的系统回顾和荟萃分析中，我们分析了迄今为止报告的不同珊瑚礁底栖群落变化，并讨论了用于研究这些变化的方法的优缺点。此外，我们使用现场覆盖数据（来自 ReefCheck 数据库的 1116 个珊瑚礁）来探讨主要底栖生物的生物地理和纬度模式。我们发现，文献对珊瑚-藻类变化的关注（分析的研究中有一半以上）与观察到的全球自然模式不匹配。我们确定了强烈的生物地理模式，最大和最多样化的生物地理区域（西中和印度洋太平洋）呈现出以前被忽视的软珊瑚主导的群落，是最丰富的替代群落。最后，我们讨论了那些忽视生态上重要的隐生底栖群落的方法可能存在的偏差，以及新技术进步在改善监测工作方面的潜力。随着海洋条件的变化，珊瑚礁群落不可避免地迅速变化，因此迫切需要更好地了解这些新群落的分布、动态以及它们对生态和社会的影响。
