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Ecological Consequences of Sediment on High-Energy Coral Reefs

Sediments are widely accepted as a threat to coral reefs but our understanding of their ecological impacts is limited. Evidence has suggested that benthic sediments bound within the epilithic algal matrix (EAM) suppress reef fish herbivory, a key ecological process maintaining reef resilience. An ex...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Goatley, Christopher H. R., Bellwood, David R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3790735/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24124619
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0077737
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author Goatley, Christopher H. R.
Bellwood, David R.
author_facet Goatley, Christopher H. R.
Bellwood, David R.
author_sort Goatley, Christopher H. R.
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description Sediments are widely accepted as a threat to coral reefs but our understanding of their ecological impacts is limited. Evidence has suggested that benthic sediments bound within the epilithic algal matrix (EAM) suppress reef fish herbivory, a key ecological process maintaining reef resilience. An experimental combination of caging and sediment addition treatments were used to investigate the effects of sediment pulses on herbivory and EAMs and to determine whether sediment addition could trigger a positive-feedback loop, leading to deep, sediment-rich turfs. A 1-week pulsed sediment addition resulted in rapid increases in algal turf length with effects comparable to those seen in herbivore exclusion cages. Contrary to the hypothesised positive-feedback mechanism, benthic sediment loads returned to natural levels within 3 weeks, however, the EAM turfs remained almost 60% longer for at least 3 months. While reduced herbivore density is widely understood to be a major threat to reefs, we show that acute disturbances to reef sediments elicit similar ecological responses in the EAM. With reefs increasingly threatened by both reductions in herbivore biomass and altered sediment fluxes, the development of longer turfs may become more common on coral reefs.
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spelling pubmed-37907352013-10-11 Ecological Consequences of Sediment on High-Energy Coral Reefs Goatley, Christopher H. R. Bellwood, David R. PLoS One Research Article Sediments are widely accepted as a threat to coral reefs but our understanding of their ecological impacts is limited. Evidence has suggested that benthic sediments bound within the epilithic algal matrix (EAM) suppress reef fish herbivory, a key ecological process maintaining reef resilience. An experimental combination of caging and sediment addition treatments were used to investigate the effects of sediment pulses on herbivory and EAMs and to determine whether sediment addition could trigger a positive-feedback loop, leading to deep, sediment-rich turfs. A 1-week pulsed sediment addition resulted in rapid increases in algal turf length with effects comparable to those seen in herbivore exclusion cages. Contrary to the hypothesised positive-feedback mechanism, benthic sediment loads returned to natural levels within 3 weeks, however, the EAM turfs remained almost 60% longer for at least 3 months. While reduced herbivore density is widely understood to be a major threat to reefs, we show that acute disturbances to reef sediments elicit similar ecological responses in the EAM. With reefs increasingly threatened by both reductions in herbivore biomass and altered sediment fluxes, the development of longer turfs may become more common on coral reefs. Public Library of Science 2013-10-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3790735/ /pubmed/24124619 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0077737 Text en © 2013 Goatley 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
Goatley, Christopher H. R.
Bellwood, David R.
Ecological Consequences of Sediment on High-Energy Coral Reefs
title Ecological Consequences of Sediment on High-Energy Coral Reefs
title_full Ecological Consequences of Sediment on High-Energy Coral Reefs
title_fullStr Ecological Consequences of Sediment on High-Energy Coral Reefs
title_full_unstemmed Ecological Consequences of Sediment on High-Energy Coral Reefs
title_short Ecological Consequences of Sediment on High-Energy Coral Reefs
title_sort ecological consequences of sediment on high-energy coral reefs
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3790735/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24124619
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0077737
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