Graham Nicholas A J, Wilson Shaun K, Benkwitt Cassandra E, Bonne Rodney, Govinden Rodney, Robinson James P W
Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
Australian Institute of Marine Science, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.
Ecol Lett. 2024 Dec;27(12):e14454. doi: 10.1111/ele.14454.
Ecosystems are substantially changing in response to ongoing climate change. For example, coral reefs have declined in coral dominance, with some reefs undergoing regime shifts to non-coral states. However, reef responses may vary through multiple heat stress events, with the rarity of long-term ecological datasets rendering such understanding uncertain. Assessing coral reefs across the inner Seychelles islands using a 28-year dataset, we document faster coral recovery from the 2016 than the 1998 marine heatwave event. Further, compositions of benthic and fish communities were more resistant to change following the more recent heat stress, having stabilized in a persistent altered state, with greater herbivory, following the 1998 climate disturbance. Counter to predictions, a macroalgal-dominated reef that had regime-shifted following the 1998 disturbance is transitioning to a coral-dominated state following the 2016 heat stress. Collectively, these patterns indicate that reef systems may be more resilient to repeat heatwave events than anticipated.
生态系统正在因持续的气候变化而发生显著变化。例如，珊瑚礁中珊瑚的主导地位已下降，一些珊瑚礁正经历状态转变，变为非珊瑚状态。然而，珊瑚礁在多次热应激事件中的反应可能有所不同，长期生态数据集的稀缺使得这种理解存在不确定性。利用一个长达28年的数据集对塞舌尔群岛内部的珊瑚礁进行评估，我们发现与1998年的海洋热浪事件相比，2016年之后珊瑚的恢复速度更快。此外，底栖生物和鱼类群落的组成在最近一次热应激后对变化的抵抗力更强，在1998年气候干扰后，它们在持续改变的状态下趋于稳定，食草性更强。与预测相反，一个在1998年干扰后发生状态转变、以大型藻类为主导的珊瑚礁，在2016年热应激后正转变为以珊瑚为主导的状态。总体而言，这些模式表明珊瑚礁系统对反复出现的热浪事件的恢复力可能比预期更强。
