Cargando…
Widespread loss of Caribbean acroporid corals was underway before coral bleaching and disease outbreaks
The mass mortality of acroporid corals has transformed Caribbean reefs from coral- to macroalgal-dominated habitats since systematic monitoring began in the 1970s. Declines have been attributed to overfishing, pollution, sea urchin and coral disease, and climate change, but the mechanisms are unreso...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
American Association for the Advancement of Science
2020
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7176417/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32426458 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax9395 |
_version_ | 1783525014414295040 |
---|---|
author | Cramer, Katie L. Jackson, Jeremy B. C. Donovan, Mary K. Greenstein, Benjamin J. Korpanty, Chelsea A. Cook, Geoffrey M. Pandolfi, John M. |
author_facet | Cramer, Katie L. Jackson, Jeremy B. C. Donovan, Mary K. Greenstein, Benjamin J. Korpanty, Chelsea A. Cook, Geoffrey M. Pandolfi, John M. |
author_sort | Cramer, Katie L. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The mass mortality of acroporid corals has transformed Caribbean reefs from coral- to macroalgal-dominated habitats since systematic monitoring began in the 1970s. Declines have been attributed to overfishing, pollution, sea urchin and coral disease, and climate change, but the mechanisms are unresolved due to the dearth of pre-1970s data. We used paleoecological, historical, and survey data to track Acropora presence and dominance throughout the Caribbean from the prehuman period to present. Declines in dominance from prehuman values first occurred in the 1950s for Acropora palmata and the 1960s for Acropora cervicornis, decades before outbreaks of acroporid disease or bleaching. We compared trends in Acropora dominance since 1950 to potential regional and local drivers. Human population negatively affected and consumption of fertilizer for agriculture positively affected A. palmata dominance, the latter likely due to lower human presence in agricultural areas. The earlier, local roots of Caribbean Acropora declines highlight the urgency of mitigating local human impacts. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7176417 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-71764172020-05-18 Widespread loss of Caribbean acroporid corals was underway before coral bleaching and disease outbreaks Cramer, Katie L. Jackson, Jeremy B. C. Donovan, Mary K. Greenstein, Benjamin J. Korpanty, Chelsea A. Cook, Geoffrey M. Pandolfi, John M. Sci Adv Research Articles The mass mortality of acroporid corals has transformed Caribbean reefs from coral- to macroalgal-dominated habitats since systematic monitoring began in the 1970s. Declines have been attributed to overfishing, pollution, sea urchin and coral disease, and climate change, but the mechanisms are unresolved due to the dearth of pre-1970s data. We used paleoecological, historical, and survey data to track Acropora presence and dominance throughout the Caribbean from the prehuman period to present. Declines in dominance from prehuman values first occurred in the 1950s for Acropora palmata and the 1960s for Acropora cervicornis, decades before outbreaks of acroporid disease or bleaching. We compared trends in Acropora dominance since 1950 to potential regional and local drivers. Human population negatively affected and consumption of fertilizer for agriculture positively affected A. palmata dominance, the latter likely due to lower human presence in agricultural areas. The earlier, local roots of Caribbean Acropora declines highlight the urgency of mitigating local human impacts. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2020-04-22 /pmc/articles/PMC7176417/ /pubmed/32426458 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax9395 Text en Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) , which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Articles Cramer, Katie L. Jackson, Jeremy B. C. Donovan, Mary K. Greenstein, Benjamin J. Korpanty, Chelsea A. Cook, Geoffrey M. Pandolfi, John M. Widespread loss of Caribbean acroporid corals was underway before coral bleaching and disease outbreaks |
title | Widespread loss of Caribbean acroporid corals was underway before coral bleaching and disease outbreaks |
title_full | Widespread loss of Caribbean acroporid corals was underway before coral bleaching and disease outbreaks |
title_fullStr | Widespread loss of Caribbean acroporid corals was underway before coral bleaching and disease outbreaks |
title_full_unstemmed | Widespread loss of Caribbean acroporid corals was underway before coral bleaching and disease outbreaks |
title_short | Widespread loss of Caribbean acroporid corals was underway before coral bleaching and disease outbreaks |
title_sort | widespread loss of caribbean acroporid corals was underway before coral bleaching and disease outbreaks |
topic | Research Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7176417/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32426458 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax9395 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT cramerkatiel widespreadlossofcaribbeanacroporidcoralswasunderwaybeforecoralbleachinganddiseaseoutbreaks AT jacksonjeremybc widespreadlossofcaribbeanacroporidcoralswasunderwaybeforecoralbleachinganddiseaseoutbreaks AT donovanmaryk widespreadlossofcaribbeanacroporidcoralswasunderwaybeforecoralbleachinganddiseaseoutbreaks AT greensteinbenjaminj widespreadlossofcaribbeanacroporidcoralswasunderwaybeforecoralbleachinganddiseaseoutbreaks AT korpantychelseaa widespreadlossofcaribbeanacroporidcoralswasunderwaybeforecoralbleachinganddiseaseoutbreaks AT cookgeoffreym widespreadlossofcaribbeanacroporidcoralswasunderwaybeforecoralbleachinganddiseaseoutbreaks AT pandolfijohnm widespreadlossofcaribbeanacroporidcoralswasunderwaybeforecoralbleachinganddiseaseoutbreaks |