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Water Quality and Herbivory Interactively Drive Coral-Reef Recovery Patterns in American Samoa
BACKGROUND: Compared with a wealth of information regarding coral-reef recovery patterns following major disturbances, less insight exists to explain the cause(s) of spatial variation in the recovery process. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This study quantifies the influence of herbivory and water...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Public Library of Science
2010
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2978088/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21085715 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013913 |
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author | Houk, Peter Musburger, Craig Wiles, Phil |
author_facet | Houk, Peter Musburger, Craig Wiles, Phil |
author_sort | Houk, Peter |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Compared with a wealth of information regarding coral-reef recovery patterns following major disturbances, less insight exists to explain the cause(s) of spatial variation in the recovery process. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This study quantifies the influence of herbivory and water quality upon coral reef assemblages through space and time in Tutuila, American Samoa, a Pacific high island. Widespread declines in dominant corals (Acropora and Montipora) resulted from cyclone Heta at the end of 2003, shortly after the study began. Four sites that initially had similar coral reef assemblages but differential temporal dynamics four years following the disturbance event were classified by standardized measures of ‘recovery status’, defined by rates of change in ecological measures that are known to be sensitive to localized stressors. Status was best predicted, interactively, by water quality and herbivory. Expanding upon temporal trends, this study examined if similar dependencies existed through space; building multiple regression models to identify linkages between similar status measures and local stressors for 17 localities around Tutuila. The results highlighted consistent, interactive interdependencies for coral reef assemblages residing upon two unique geological reef types. Finally, the predictive regression models produced at the island scale were graphically interpreted with respect to hypothesized site-specific recovery thresholds. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Cumulatively, our study purports that moving away from describing relatively well-known patterns behind recovery, and focusing upon understanding causes, improves our foundation to predict future ecological dynamics, and thus improves coral reef management. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-2978088 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2010 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-29780882010-11-17 Water Quality and Herbivory Interactively Drive Coral-Reef Recovery Patterns in American Samoa Houk, Peter Musburger, Craig Wiles, Phil PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Compared with a wealth of information regarding coral-reef recovery patterns following major disturbances, less insight exists to explain the cause(s) of spatial variation in the recovery process. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This study quantifies the influence of herbivory and water quality upon coral reef assemblages through space and time in Tutuila, American Samoa, a Pacific high island. Widespread declines in dominant corals (Acropora and Montipora) resulted from cyclone Heta at the end of 2003, shortly after the study began. Four sites that initially had similar coral reef assemblages but differential temporal dynamics four years following the disturbance event were classified by standardized measures of ‘recovery status’, defined by rates of change in ecological measures that are known to be sensitive to localized stressors. Status was best predicted, interactively, by water quality and herbivory. Expanding upon temporal trends, this study examined if similar dependencies existed through space; building multiple regression models to identify linkages between similar status measures and local stressors for 17 localities around Tutuila. The results highlighted consistent, interactive interdependencies for coral reef assemblages residing upon two unique geological reef types. Finally, the predictive regression models produced at the island scale were graphically interpreted with respect to hypothesized site-specific recovery thresholds. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Cumulatively, our study purports that moving away from describing relatively well-known patterns behind recovery, and focusing upon understanding causes, improves our foundation to predict future ecological dynamics, and thus improves coral reef management. Public Library of Science 2010-11-10 /pmc/articles/PMC2978088/ /pubmed/21085715 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013913 Text en Houk et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Houk, Peter Musburger, Craig Wiles, Phil Water Quality and Herbivory Interactively Drive Coral-Reef Recovery Patterns in American Samoa |
title | Water Quality and Herbivory Interactively Drive Coral-Reef Recovery Patterns in American Samoa |
title_full | Water Quality and Herbivory Interactively Drive Coral-Reef Recovery Patterns in American Samoa |
title_fullStr | Water Quality and Herbivory Interactively Drive Coral-Reef Recovery Patterns in American Samoa |
title_full_unstemmed | Water Quality and Herbivory Interactively Drive Coral-Reef Recovery Patterns in American Samoa |
title_short | Water Quality and Herbivory Interactively Drive Coral-Reef Recovery Patterns in American Samoa |
title_sort | water quality and herbivory interactively drive coral-reef recovery patterns in american samoa |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2978088/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21085715 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013913 |
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