Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Barefoot Ocean, LLC., Houston, Texas, USA.
Sci Rep. 2023 Aug 28;13(1):14022. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-40672-x.
Anthropogenic climate change is intensifying natural disturbance regimes, which negatively affects some species, while benefiting others. This could alter the trait composition of ecological communities and influence resilience to disturbance. We investigated how the frequency and intensification of the regional storm regime (and likely other disturbances) is altering coral species composition and in turn resistance and recovery. We developed regional databases of coral cover and composition (3144 reef locations from 1970 to 2017) and of the path and strength of cyclonic storms in the region (including 10,058 unique storm-reef intersections). We found that total living coral cover declined steadily through 2017 (the median annual loss rate was ~ 0.25% per year). Our results also indicate that despite the observed increase in the intensity of Atlantic cyclonic storms, their effect on coral cover has decreased markedly. This could be due in part to selection for disturbance-resistant taxa in response to the intensifying disturbance regime. We found that storms accelerated the loss of threatened acroporid corals but had no measurable effect on the cover of more resilient "weedy" corals, thereby increasing their relative cover. Although resistance to disturbance has increased, recovery rates have slowed due to the dominance of small, slow-growing species. This feedback loop is locking coral communities into a low-functioning state dominated by weedy species with limited ecological or societal value.
人为气候变化加剧了自然干扰格局，这对一些物种产生了负面影响，而对其他物种则有利。这可能会改变生态群落的特征组成，并影响对干扰的恢复力。我们研究了区域风暴格局（可能还有其他干扰）的频率和强度如何改变珊瑚物种组成，进而影响抵抗和恢复能力。我们开发了珊瑚覆盖和组成的区域数据库（1970 年至 2017 年期间的 3144 个珊瑚礁位置），以及该地区气旋风暴路径和强度的数据库（包括 10058 个独特的风暴-珊瑚礁交点）。我们发现，到 2017 年，总活珊瑚覆盖率稳步下降（每年的中位损失率约为 0.25%）。我们的研究结果还表明，尽管大西洋气旋风暴的强度有所增加，但它们对珊瑚覆盖率的影响明显减弱。这部分可能是由于对适应加剧的干扰格局的抗干扰分类群的选择。我们发现，风暴加速了受威胁的鹿角珊瑚的损失，但对更具弹性的“杂草”珊瑚的覆盖率没有可衡量的影响，从而增加了它们的相对覆盖率。尽管抗干扰能力有所提高，但由于小而生长缓慢的物种占主导地位，恢复速度已经放缓。这种反馈循环将珊瑚群落锁定在以杂草物种为主的低功能状态，这些物种的生态或社会价值有限。
