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Spatial competition dynamics between reef corals under ocean acidification
Climate change, including ocean acidification (OA), represents a major threat to coral-reef ecosystems. Although previous experiments have shown that OA can negatively affect the fitness of reef corals, these have not included the long-term effects of competition for space on coral growth rates. Our...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Nature Publishing Group
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5220319/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28067281 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep40288 |
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author | Horwitz, Rael Hoogenboom, Mia O. Fine, Maoz |
author_facet | Horwitz, Rael Hoogenboom, Mia O. Fine, Maoz |
author_sort | Horwitz, Rael |
collection | PubMed |
description | Climate change, including ocean acidification (OA), represents a major threat to coral-reef ecosystems. Although previous experiments have shown that OA can negatively affect the fitness of reef corals, these have not included the long-term effects of competition for space on coral growth rates. Our multispecies year-long study subjected reef-building corals from the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea) to competitive interactions under present-day ocean pH (pH 8.1) and predicted end-of-century ocean pH (pH 7.6). Results showed coral growth is significantly impeded by OA under intraspecific competition for five out of six study species. Reduced growth from OA, however, is negligible when growth is already suppressed in the presence of interspecific competition. Using a spatial competition model, our analysis indicates shifts in the competitive hierarchy and a decrease in overall coral cover under lowered pH. Collectively, our case study demonstrates how modified competitive performance under increasing OA will in all likelihood change the composition, structure and functionality of reef coral communities. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5220319 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-52203192017-01-11 Spatial competition dynamics between reef corals under ocean acidification Horwitz, Rael Hoogenboom, Mia O. Fine, Maoz Sci Rep Article Climate change, including ocean acidification (OA), represents a major threat to coral-reef ecosystems. Although previous experiments have shown that OA can negatively affect the fitness of reef corals, these have not included the long-term effects of competition for space on coral growth rates. Our multispecies year-long study subjected reef-building corals from the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea) to competitive interactions under present-day ocean pH (pH 8.1) and predicted end-of-century ocean pH (pH 7.6). Results showed coral growth is significantly impeded by OA under intraspecific competition for five out of six study species. Reduced growth from OA, however, is negligible when growth is already suppressed in the presence of interspecific competition. Using a spatial competition model, our analysis indicates shifts in the competitive hierarchy and a decrease in overall coral cover under lowered pH. Collectively, our case study demonstrates how modified competitive performance under increasing OA will in all likelihood change the composition, structure and functionality of reef coral communities. Nature Publishing Group 2017-01-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5220319/ /pubmed/28067281 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep40288 Text en Copyright © 2017, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Horwitz, Rael Hoogenboom, Mia O. Fine, Maoz Spatial competition dynamics between reef corals under ocean acidification |
title | Spatial competition dynamics between reef corals under ocean acidification |
title_full | Spatial competition dynamics between reef corals under ocean acidification |
title_fullStr | Spatial competition dynamics between reef corals under ocean acidification |
title_full_unstemmed | Spatial competition dynamics between reef corals under ocean acidification |
title_short | Spatial competition dynamics between reef corals under ocean acidification |
title_sort | spatial competition dynamics between reef corals under ocean acidification |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5220319/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28067281 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep40288 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT horwitzrael spatialcompetitiondynamicsbetweenreefcoralsunderoceanacidification AT hoogenboommiao spatialcompetitiondynamicsbetweenreefcoralsunderoceanacidification AT finemaoz spatialcompetitiondynamicsbetweenreefcoralsunderoceanacidification |