School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
Nat Commun. 2022 May 9;13(1):2520. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-30213-x.
Management of coral predators, corallivores, is recommended to improve coral cover on tropical coral reefs under projected increasing levels of accumulated thermal stress, but whether corallivore management can improve coral cover, which is necessary for large-scale operationalisation, remains equivocal. Here, using a multispecies ecosystem model, we investigate intensive management of an invertebrate corallivore, the Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster cf. solaris), and show that culling could improve coral cover at sub-reef spatial scales, but efficacy varied substantially within and among reefs. Simulated thermal stress events attenuated management-derived coral cover improvements and was dependent on the level of accumulated thermal stress, the thermal sensitivity of coral communities and the rate of corallivore recruitment at fine spatial scales. Corallivore management was most effective when accumulated thermal stress was low, coral communities were less sensitive to heat stress and in areas of high corallivore recruitment success. Our analysis informs how to manage a pest species to promote coral cover under future thermal stress events.
建议对珊瑚捕食者（corallivore）进行管理，以提高热带珊瑚礁的珊瑚覆盖率，因为预计未来热应激水平会不断增加，但这种管理能否提高珊瑚覆盖率，从而实现大规模应用，仍存在争议。在这里，我们使用多物种生态系统模型，研究了对无脊椎珊瑚捕食者——棘冠海星（Acanthaster cf. solaris）的密集管理，并表明清除作业可以提高亚礁空间尺度的珊瑚覆盖率，但在不同珊瑚礁内和之间的效果差异很大。模拟的热应激事件减弱了管理带来的珊瑚覆盖率的提高，其效果取决于积累的热应激水平、珊瑚群落的热敏感性以及细空间尺度上珊瑚捕食者的补充率。当积累的热应激水平较低、珊瑚群落对热应激的敏感性较低且珊瑚捕食者补充成功率较高时，珊瑚捕食者管理最为有效。我们的分析为在未来的热应激事件下如何管理有害物种以促进珊瑚覆盖率提供了信息。
