Journal
CORAL REEFS
Volume 38, Issue 4, Pages 619-624Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00338-019-01784-x
Keywords
Coral bleaching; Carbonate production; ReefBudget; Chagos Archipelago; British Indian Ocean Territory
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Funding
- Bertarelli Foundation as part of the Bertarelli Programme in Marine Science
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Reefs in the remote Chagos Archipelago (central Indian Ocean) were severely affected by sea surface temperature warming and coral bleaching in 2015-2016. Here we assess the impacts of this event on community composition and reef carbonate production at twelve fore reefs sites across three atolls. Bleaching caused a 69% decline in coral cover, mostly driven by mortality of tabular Acropora spp. and a 77% decline in mean coral carbonate production (2015: 13.1 +/- 4.8; 2018: 3.0 +/- 1.2 kg CaCO3 m(2) yr(-1)). Changes were accompanied by a major shift from competitive to stress-tolerant coral taxa, with magnitudes of decline comparable to those reported elsewhere in the Indian Ocean, despite inter-site differences in dominant coral species. These trends differ from those on reefs already dominated by stress-tolerant taxa, which experienced minor declines in production post-warming. The study highlights the potential for different suites of functional coral groups to drive divergent post-bleaching budget responses.
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