Journal ArticleDOI
Coral reef bleaching: ecological perspectives
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TLDR
An effort must be made to understand the impact of bleaching on the remainder of the reef community and the long-term effects on competition, predation, symbioses, bioerosion and substrate condition, all factors that can influence coral recruitment and reef recovery.Abstract:
Coral reef bleaching, the whitening of diverse invertebrate taxa, results from the loss of symbiotic zooxanthellae and/or a reduction in photosynthetic pigment concentrations in zooxanthellae residing within the gastrodermal tissues of host animals. Of particular concern are the consequences of bleaching of large numbers of reef-building scleractinian corals and hydrocorals. Published records of coral reef bleaching events from 1870 to the present suggest that the frequency (60 major events from 1979 to 1990), scale (co-occurrence in many coral reef regions and often over the bathymetric depth range of corals) and severity (>95% mortality in some areas) of recent bleaching disturbances are unprecedented in the scientific literature. The causes of small scale, isolated bleaching events can often be explained by particular stressors (e.g., temperature, salinity, light, sedimentation, aerial exposure and pollutants), but attempts to explain large scale bleaching events in terms of possible global change (e.g., greenhouse warming, increased UV radiation flux, deteriorating ecosystem health, or some combination of the above) have not been convincing. Attempts to relate the severity and extent of large scale coral reef bleaching events to particular causes have been hampered by a lack of (a) standardized methods to assess bleaching and (b) continuous, long-term data bases of environmental conditions over the periods of interest. An effort must be made to understand the impact of bleaching on the remainder of the reef community and the long-term effects on competition, predation, symbioses, bioerosion and substrate condition, all factors that can influence coral recruitment and reef recovery. If projected rates of sea warming are realized by mid to late AD 2000, i.e. a 2°C increase in high latitude coral seas, the upper thermal tolerance limits of many reef-building corals could be exceeded. Present evidence suggests that many corals would be unable to adapt physiologically or genetically to such marked and rapid temperature increases.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Symbiodiniaceae conduct under natural bleaching stress during advanced gametogenesis stages of a mesophotic coral
TL;DR: It is proposed that evolutionarily, this behavior may greatly contribute to the symbiont community survival throughout the bleaching period, and it can also be beneficial for the host's persistence and adaptation to bleaching through the acquisition of a specific Symbiodiniaceae community following theBleaching event.
Journal ArticleDOI
The seasonal investigation of Symbiodiniaceae in broadcast spawning, Acropora humilis and brooding, Pocillopora cf. damicornis corals
TL;DR: In this article , the authors provided the first annual investigation of Symbiodiniaceae density and diversity associated with Acropora humilis and P. damicornis corals in the Gulf of Thailand using both zooxanthellae cell count and next-generation sequencing (ITS-1, ITS-2 regions) techniques, respectively.
Journal ArticleDOI
Modelling the acclimation capacity of coral reefs to a warming ocean
TL;DR: In this article , a trait-based, acclimation dynamics model is presented to provide a first, crude estimate of the speed of coral community level and investigate the effects of different global warming scenarios on three iconic reef ecosystems of the tropics.
Dissertation
The effects of nutrient status and thermal stress in the symbiotic sea anemone Exaiptasia pallida
Book Chapter
Chapter 3 Coral Bleaching in Space and Time
TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of human-induced climate change on coral reefs has been studied and it is shown that the degree of destruction and the permanence of the impacts are uncertain.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
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Journal ArticleDOI
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Journal ArticleDOI
Responses of coral reefs and reef organisms to sedimentation
TL;DR: Data is needed on the threshold levels for reef orgarusms and for the reef ecosystem as a whole the levels above which sedimentation has lethal effects for particular species and above which normal functioning of the reef ceases.
Book
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