The health of coral reef benthic and fish communities is implicitly connected, yet typically studied and managed separately. By developing a coupled reef population model that connects coral populations and reef fish biomass through the habitat complexity that corals build and fish live among, we aim to address this gap by holistically quantifying ecological feedbacks and responses to ecological stressors. We explored the impacts of fishing effort in conjunction with three types of ecological disturbances as they propagated through a coral reef ecosystem: (1) a disturbance that disproportionately affected small, bio‐energetically vulnerable colonies, (2) a disturbance that predominantly affected large, mechanically vulnerable colonies, and (3) a disturbance that affected colonies of all sizes randomly. We found that joint coral and fish population recovery was fastest and most complete under events affecting small colonies, followed by recovery from disturbances affecting random sizes, and lastly large‐colony disturbances. These results suggest that the retention versus loss of large coral colonies with high reproductive potential critically influenced population recovery. Low fishing levels maintained fish and coral populations and allowed for recovery after disturbances, whereas high fishing levels prevented recovery due to greater fish‐dependent coral mortality. Finally, we tested various formulations of the relationship between coral size and habitat complexity (i.e., exponential, linear, logarithmic) that constrain fish carrying capacity. All formulations led to similar population projections in most disturbance scenarios, but there were exceptions where the timing and trajectory of recovery differed, such as faster and greater recovery potential when complexity is logarithmic with respect to coral size. These findings suggest that fishing and habitat complexity mediate the recovery of coral reef populations, emphasizing the importance of describing linkages between coral size distribution and reef habitat structure. Furthermore, our results highlight the utility of the coupled‐model framework for understanding and managing the impact of disturbances at ecosystem scales.
- Home
- Search Results
- Page 1 of 1
Search for: All records
-
Total Resources2
- Resource Type
-
00000020000
- More
- Availability
-
11
- Author / Contributor
- Filter by Author / Creator
-
-
Asbury, Mollie (1)
-
Innes‐Gold, Anne_A (1)
-
Krueger, Elisabeth H (1)
-
Madin, Elizabeth_M_P (1)
-
Madin, Joshua_S (1)
-
McManus, Lisa C (1)
-
McManus, Lisa_C (1)
-
Tilman, Andrew R (1)
-
Watson, James R (1)
-
Wulstein, Devynn_M (1)
-
#Tyler Phillips, Kenneth E. (0)
-
#Willis, Ciara (0)
-
& Abreu-Ramos, E. D. (0)
-
& Abramson, C. I. (0)
-
& Abreu-Ramos, E. D. (0)
-
& Adams, S.G. (0)
-
& Ahmed, K. (0)
-
& Ahmed, Khadija. (0)
-
& Aina, D.K. Jr. (0)
-
& Akcil-Okan, O. (0)
-
- Filter by Editor
-
-
& Spizer, S. M. (0)
-
& . Spizer, S. (0)
-
& Ahn, J. (0)
-
& Bateiha, S. (0)
-
& Bosch, N. (0)
-
& Brennan K. (0)
-
& Brennan, K. (0)
-
& Chen, B. (0)
-
& Chen, Bodong (0)
-
& Drown, S. (0)
-
& Ferretti, F. (0)
-
& Higgins, A. (0)
-
& J. Peters (0)
-
& Kali, Y. (0)
-
& Ruiz-Arias, P.M. (0)
-
& S. Spitzer (0)
-
& Sahin. I. (0)
-
& Spitzer, S. (0)
-
& Spitzer, S.M. (0)
-
(submitted - in Review for IEEE ICASSP-2024) (0)
-
-
Have feedback or suggestions for a way to improve these results?
!
Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher.
Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?
Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.
-
Abstract -
Tilman, Andrew R ; Krueger, Elisabeth H ; McManus, Lisa C ; Watson, James R ( , Ecological Economics)Global environmental change is pushing many socio-environmental systems towards critical thresholds, where ecological systems’ states are on the precipice of tipping points and interventions are needed to navigate or avert impending transitions. Flickering, where a system vacillates between alternative stable states, is an early warning signal of transitions to alternative ecological regimes. However, while flickering may presage an ecological tipping point, these dynamics also pose unique challenges for human adaptation. We link an ecological model that can exhibit flickering to a model of human environmental adaptation to explore the impact of flickering on the utility of adaptive agents. When adaptive capacity is low, flickering causes wellbeing to decline disproportionately. As a result, flickering dynamics move forward the optimal timing of a transformational change that can secure wellbeing despite environmental variability. The implications of flickering on communities faced with desertification, fisheries collapse, and ecosystem change are explored as possible case studies. Flickering, driven in part by climate change and extreme events, may already be impacting communities. Our results suggest that governance interventions investing in adaptive capacity or facilitating transformational change before flickering arises could blunt the negative impact of flickering as socio-environmental systems pass through tipping points.more » « lessFree, publicly-accessible full text available July 1, 2025