Cargando…

Acanthaster planci Outbreak: Decline in Coral Health, Coral Size Structure Modification and Consequences for Obligate Decapod Assemblages

Although benthic motile invertebrate communities encompass the vast majority of coral reef diversity, their response to habitat modification has been poorly studied. A variety of benthic species, particularly decapods, provide benefits to their coral host enabling them to cope with environmental str...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Leray, Matthieu, Béraud, Maxime, Anker, Arthur, Chancerelle, Yannick, Mills, Suzanne C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3328453/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22530026
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0035456
_version_ 1782229744039755776
author Leray, Matthieu
Béraud, Maxime
Anker, Arthur
Chancerelle, Yannick
Mills, Suzanne C.
author_facet Leray, Matthieu
Béraud, Maxime
Anker, Arthur
Chancerelle, Yannick
Mills, Suzanne C.
author_sort Leray, Matthieu
collection PubMed
description Although benthic motile invertebrate communities encompass the vast majority of coral reef diversity, their response to habitat modification has been poorly studied. A variety of benthic species, particularly decapods, provide benefits to their coral host enabling them to cope with environmental stressors, and as a result benefit the overall diversity of coral-associated species. However, little is known about how invertebrate assemblages associated with corals will be affected by global perturbations, (either directly or indirectly via their coral host) or their consequences for ecosystem resilience. Analysis of a ten year dataset reveals that the greatest perturbation at Moorea over this time was an outbreak of the corallivorous sea star Acanthaster planci from 2006 to 2009 impacting habitat health, availability and size structure of Pocillopora spp. populations and highlights a positive relationship between coral head size and survival. We then present the results of a mensurative study in 2009 conducted at the end of the perturbation (A. planci outbreak) describing how coral-decapod communities change with percent coral mortality for a selected coral species, Pocillopora eydouxi. The loss of coral tissue as a consequence of A. planci consumption led to an increase in rarefied total species diversity, but caused drastic modifications in community composition driven by a shift from coral obligate to non-obligate decapod species. Our study highlights that larger corals left with live tissue in 2009, formed a restricted habitat where coral obligate decapods, including mutualists, could subsist. We conclude that the size structure of Pocillopora populations at the time of an A. planci outbreak may greatly condition the magnitude of coral mortality as well as the persistence of local populations of obligate decapods.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3328453
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2012
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-33284532012-04-23 Acanthaster planci Outbreak: Decline in Coral Health, Coral Size Structure Modification and Consequences for Obligate Decapod Assemblages Leray, Matthieu Béraud, Maxime Anker, Arthur Chancerelle, Yannick Mills, Suzanne C. PLoS One Research Article Although benthic motile invertebrate communities encompass the vast majority of coral reef diversity, their response to habitat modification has been poorly studied. A variety of benthic species, particularly decapods, provide benefits to their coral host enabling them to cope with environmental stressors, and as a result benefit the overall diversity of coral-associated species. However, little is known about how invertebrate assemblages associated with corals will be affected by global perturbations, (either directly or indirectly via their coral host) or their consequences for ecosystem resilience. Analysis of a ten year dataset reveals that the greatest perturbation at Moorea over this time was an outbreak of the corallivorous sea star Acanthaster planci from 2006 to 2009 impacting habitat health, availability and size structure of Pocillopora spp. populations and highlights a positive relationship between coral head size and survival. We then present the results of a mensurative study in 2009 conducted at the end of the perturbation (A. planci outbreak) describing how coral-decapod communities change with percent coral mortality for a selected coral species, Pocillopora eydouxi. The loss of coral tissue as a consequence of A. planci consumption led to an increase in rarefied total species diversity, but caused drastic modifications in community composition driven by a shift from coral obligate to non-obligate decapod species. Our study highlights that larger corals left with live tissue in 2009, formed a restricted habitat where coral obligate decapods, including mutualists, could subsist. We conclude that the size structure of Pocillopora populations at the time of an A. planci outbreak may greatly condition the magnitude of coral mortality as well as the persistence of local populations of obligate decapods. Public Library of Science 2012-04-17 /pmc/articles/PMC3328453/ /pubmed/22530026 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0035456 Text en Leray 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
Leray, Matthieu
Béraud, Maxime
Anker, Arthur
Chancerelle, Yannick
Mills, Suzanne C.
Acanthaster planci Outbreak: Decline in Coral Health, Coral Size Structure Modification and Consequences for Obligate Decapod Assemblages
title Acanthaster planci Outbreak: Decline in Coral Health, Coral Size Structure Modification and Consequences for Obligate Decapod Assemblages
title_full Acanthaster planci Outbreak: Decline in Coral Health, Coral Size Structure Modification and Consequences for Obligate Decapod Assemblages
title_fullStr Acanthaster planci Outbreak: Decline in Coral Health, Coral Size Structure Modification and Consequences for Obligate Decapod Assemblages
title_full_unstemmed Acanthaster planci Outbreak: Decline in Coral Health, Coral Size Structure Modification and Consequences for Obligate Decapod Assemblages
title_short Acanthaster planci Outbreak: Decline in Coral Health, Coral Size Structure Modification and Consequences for Obligate Decapod Assemblages
title_sort acanthaster planci outbreak: decline in coral health, coral size structure modification and consequences for obligate decapod assemblages
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3328453/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22530026
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0035456
work_keys_str_mv AT leraymatthieu acanthasterplancioutbreakdeclineincoralhealthcoralsizestructuremodificationandconsequencesforobligatedecapodassemblages
AT beraudmaxime acanthasterplancioutbreakdeclineincoralhealthcoralsizestructuremodificationandconsequencesforobligatedecapodassemblages
AT ankerarthur acanthasterplancioutbreakdeclineincoralhealthcoralsizestructuremodificationandconsequencesforobligatedecapodassemblages
AT chancerelleyannick acanthasterplancioutbreakdeclineincoralhealthcoralsizestructuremodificationandconsequencesforobligatedecapodassemblages
AT millssuzannec acanthasterplancioutbreakdeclineincoralhealthcoralsizestructuremodificationandconsequencesforobligatedecapodassemblages