Cargando…

Rapidly increasing macroalgal cover not related to herbivorous fishes on Mesoamerican reefs

Long-term phase shifts from coral to macroalgal dominated reef systems are well documented in the Caribbean. Although the impact of coral diseases, climate change and other factors is acknowledged, major herbivore loss through disease and overfishing is often assigned a primary role. However, direct...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Suchley, Adam, McField, Melanie D., Alvarez-Filip, Lorenzo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4893329/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27280075
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2084
_version_ 1782435534221606912
author Suchley, Adam
McField, Melanie D.
Alvarez-Filip, Lorenzo
author_facet Suchley, Adam
McField, Melanie D.
Alvarez-Filip, Lorenzo
author_sort Suchley, Adam
collection PubMed
description Long-term phase shifts from coral to macroalgal dominated reef systems are well documented in the Caribbean. Although the impact of coral diseases, climate change and other factors is acknowledged, major herbivore loss through disease and overfishing is often assigned a primary role. However, direct evidence for the link between herbivore abundance, macroalgal and coral cover is sparse, particularly over broad spatial scales. In this study we use a database of coral reef surveys performed at 85 sites along the Mesoamerican Reef of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, to examine potential ecological links by tracking site trajectories over the period 2005–2014. Despite the long-term reduction of herbivory capacity reported across the Caribbean, the Mesoamerican Reef region displayed relatively low macroalgal cover at the onset of the study. Subsequently, increasing fleshy macroalgal cover was pervasive. Herbivorous fish populations were not responsible for this trend as fleshy macroalgal cover change was not correlated with initial herbivorous fish biomass or change, and the majority of sites experienced increases in macroalgae browser biomass. This contrasts the coral reef top-down herbivore control paradigm and suggests the role of external factors in making environmental conditions more favourable for algae. Increasing macroalgal cover typically suppresses ecosystem services and leads to degraded reef systems. Consequently, policy makers and local coral reef managers should reassess the focus on herbivorous fish protection and consider complementary measures such as watershed management in order to arrest this trend.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4893329
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher PeerJ Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-48933292016-06-08 Rapidly increasing macroalgal cover not related to herbivorous fishes on Mesoamerican reefs Suchley, Adam McField, Melanie D. Alvarez-Filip, Lorenzo PeerJ Conservation Biology Long-term phase shifts from coral to macroalgal dominated reef systems are well documented in the Caribbean. Although the impact of coral diseases, climate change and other factors is acknowledged, major herbivore loss through disease and overfishing is often assigned a primary role. However, direct evidence for the link between herbivore abundance, macroalgal and coral cover is sparse, particularly over broad spatial scales. In this study we use a database of coral reef surveys performed at 85 sites along the Mesoamerican Reef of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, to examine potential ecological links by tracking site trajectories over the period 2005–2014. Despite the long-term reduction of herbivory capacity reported across the Caribbean, the Mesoamerican Reef region displayed relatively low macroalgal cover at the onset of the study. Subsequently, increasing fleshy macroalgal cover was pervasive. Herbivorous fish populations were not responsible for this trend as fleshy macroalgal cover change was not correlated with initial herbivorous fish biomass or change, and the majority of sites experienced increases in macroalgae browser biomass. This contrasts the coral reef top-down herbivore control paradigm and suggests the role of external factors in making environmental conditions more favourable for algae. Increasing macroalgal cover typically suppresses ecosystem services and leads to degraded reef systems. Consequently, policy makers and local coral reef managers should reassess the focus on herbivorous fish protection and consider complementary measures such as watershed management in order to arrest this trend. PeerJ Inc. 2016-05-31 /pmc/articles/PMC4893329/ /pubmed/27280075 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2084 Text en © 2016 Suchley 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 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Conservation Biology
Suchley, Adam
McField, Melanie D.
Alvarez-Filip, Lorenzo
Rapidly increasing macroalgal cover not related to herbivorous fishes on Mesoamerican reefs
title Rapidly increasing macroalgal cover not related to herbivorous fishes on Mesoamerican reefs
title_full Rapidly increasing macroalgal cover not related to herbivorous fishes on Mesoamerican reefs
title_fullStr Rapidly increasing macroalgal cover not related to herbivorous fishes on Mesoamerican reefs
title_full_unstemmed Rapidly increasing macroalgal cover not related to herbivorous fishes on Mesoamerican reefs
title_short Rapidly increasing macroalgal cover not related to herbivorous fishes on Mesoamerican reefs
title_sort rapidly increasing macroalgal cover not related to herbivorous fishes on mesoamerican reefs
topic Conservation Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4893329/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27280075
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2084
work_keys_str_mv AT suchleyadam rapidlyincreasingmacroalgalcovernotrelatedtoherbivorousfishesonmesoamericanreefs
AT mcfieldmelanied rapidlyincreasingmacroalgalcovernotrelatedtoherbivorousfishesonmesoamericanreefs
AT alvarezfiliplorenzo rapidlyincreasingmacroalgalcovernotrelatedtoherbivorousfishesonmesoamericanreefs