More Like this

1. Divergent bleaching and recovery trajectories in reef-building corals following a decade of successive marine heatwaves

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2312104120  

   Brown, Kristen T. ; Lenz, Elizabeth A. ; Glass, Benjamin H. ; Kruse, Elisa ; McClintock, Rayna ; Drury, Crawford ; Nelson, Craig E. ; Putnam, Hollie M. ; Barott, Katie L. ( December 2023 , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Increasingly frequent marine heatwaves are devastating coral reefs. Corals that survive these extreme events must rapidly recover if they are to withstand subsequent events, and long-term survival in the face of rising ocean temperatures may hinge on recovery capacity and acclimatory gains in heat tolerance over an individual’s lifespan. To better understand coral recovery trajectories in the face of successive marine heatwaves, we monitored the responses of bleaching-susceptible and bleaching-resistant individuals of two dominant coral species in Hawai’i,Montipora capitataandPorites compressa, over a decade that included three marine heatwaves. Bleaching-susceptible colonies ofP. compressaexhibited beneficial acclimatization to heat stress (i.e., less bleaching) following repeat heatwaves, becoming indistinguishable from bleaching-resistant conspecifics during the third heatwave. In contrast, bleaching-susceptibleM. capitatarepeatedly bleached during all successive heatwaves and exhibited seasonal bleaching and substantial mortality for up to 3 y following the third heatwave. Encouragingly, bleaching-resistant individuals of both species remained pigmented across the entire time series; however, pigmentation did not necessarily indicate physiological resilience. Specifically,M. capitatadisplayed incremental yet only partial recovery of symbiont density and tissue biomass across both bleaching phenotypes up to 35 mo following the third heatwave as well as considerable partial mortality. Conversely,P. compressaappeared to recover across most physiological metrics within 2 y and experienced little to no mortality. Ultimately, these results indicate that even some visually robust, bleaching-resistant corals can carry the cost of recurring heatwaves over multiple years, leading to divergent recovery trajectories that may erode coral reef resilience in the Anthropocene.

    

   more » « less
2. Low and variable ecosystem calcification in a coral reef lagoon under natural acidification: Low and variable ecosystem calcification in a coral reef lagoon

   https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.10662  

   Shamberger, Kathryn E. ; Lentz, Steven J. ; Cohen, Anne L. ( March 2018 , Limnology and Oceanography)
3. Community production modulates coral reef pH and the sensitivity of ecosystem calcification to ocean acidification: PRODUCTION MODULATES pH AND CALCIFICATION

   https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JC012326  

   DeCarlo, Thomas M. ; Cohen, Anne L. ; Wong, George T. ; Shiah, Fuh-Kwo ; Lentz, Steven J. ; Davis, Kristen A. ; Shamberger, Kathryn E. ; Lohmann, Pat ( January 2017 , Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans)
4. Coral calcification responses to the North Atlantic Oscillation and coral bleaching in Bermuda

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241854  

   Courtney, Travis A. ; Kindeberg, Theodor ; Andersson, Andreas J. ( November 2020 , PLOS ONE)

   Caroselli, Erik (Ed.)

   The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has been hypothesized to drive interannual variability in Bermudan coral extension rates and reef-scale calcification through the provisioning of nutritional pulses associated with negative NAO winters. However, the direct influence of the NAO on Bermudan coral calcification rates remains to be determined and may vary between species and reef sites owing to implicit differences in coral life history strategies and environmental gradients across the Bermuda reef platform. In this study, we investigated the connection between negative NAO winters and Bermudan Diploria labyrinthiformis , Pseudodiploria strigosa , and Orbicella franksi coral calcification rates across rim reef, lagoon, and nearshore reef sites. Linear mixed effects modeling detected an inverse correlation between D . labyrinthiformis calcification rates and the winter NAO index, with higher rates associated with increasingly negative NAO winters. Conversely, there were no detectable correlations between P . strigosa or O . franksi calcification rates and the winter NAO index suggesting that coral calcification responses associated with negative NAO winters could be species-specific. The correlation between coral calcification rates and winter NAO index was significantly more negative at the outer rim of the reef (Hog Reef) compared to a nearshore reef site (Whalebone Bay), possibly indicating differential influence of the NAO as a function of the distance from the reef edge. Furthermore, a negative calcification anomaly was observed in 100% of D . labyrinthiformis cores in association with the 1988 coral bleaching event with a subsequent positive calcification anomaly in 1989 indicating a post-bleaching recovery in calcification rates. These results highlight the importance of assessing variable interannual coral calcification responses between species and across inshore-offshore gradients to interannual atmospheric modes such as the NAO, thermal stress events, and potential interactions between ocean warming and availability of coral nutrition to improve projections for future coral calcification rates under climate change. 

   more » « less
5. Organisms Composing an Experimental Coral Reef Community from Mo'orea, French Polynesia, Exhibit Taxon-Specific Net Production: Net Calcification Ratios

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00298  

   Lantz, Coulson A. ; Carpenter, Robert C. ; Comeau, Steeve ; Edmunds, Peter J. ( September 2017 , Frontiers in Marine Science)