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Increasingly intense and frequent ocean heatwaves are causing widespread coral mortality. These heatwaves are just one of the many stressors — among for instance ocean acidifi cation, nutrient pollution and destructive fi shing practices — that have caused widespread decline of coral reefs over the past century. This destruction of reefs threatens the remarkable biodiversity of organisms that depend upon coral reefs. However, recent research suggests that many of the fi shes and invertebrates that inhabit coral reefs may play an underappreciated role in infl uencing the resistance and recovery of corals to stressors, especially those caused by global climate change such as ocean heatwaves. Unraveling the threads that link these coral inhabitants to the corals’ response to stressors has the potential to weave a more comprehensive model of resilience that integrates the plight of coral reefs with the breathtaking diversity of life they host. Here, we aim to elucidate the critical roles that coral-associated fishes and invertebrates play in mediating coral resilience to environmental stressors. By integrating recent research findings, we aim to showcase how these often-overlooked organisms influence coral resilience in the face of climate change.
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Eutrophication on Coral Reefs: What Is the Evidence for Phase Shifts, Nutrient Limitation and Coral Bleaching
Abstract Coral reefs continue to experience extreme environmental pressure from climate change stressors, but many coral reefs are also exposed to eutrophication. It has been proposed that changes in the stoichiometry of ambient nutrients increase the mortality of corals, whereas eutrophication may facilitate phase shifts to macroalgae-dominated coral reefs when herbivory is low or absent. But are corals ever nutrient limited, and can eutrophication destabilize the coral symbiosis making it more sensitive to environmental stress because of climate change? The effects of eutrophication are confounded not just by the effects of climate change but by the presence of chemical pollutants in industrial, urban, and agricultural wastes. Because of these confounding effects, the increases in nutrients or changes in their stoichiometry in coastal environments, although they are important at the organismal and community level, cannot currently be disentangled from each other or from the more significant effects of climate change stressors on coral reefs.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1638296
- PAR ID:
- 10351209
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- BioScience
- Volume:
- 71
- Issue:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 0006-3568
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1216 to 1233
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biab101
