Spatial and temporal variability of benthic primary production in upwelling-influenced Colombian Caribbean coral reefs
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biosphere Interactions, Climate Change Biology, Ecology, Marine Biology, Natural Resource Management
- Keywords
- Primary production, Coral reefs, Coastal upwelling, Seasonal variation, Colombian Caribbea, Tayrona National Natural Park
- Copyright
- © 2014 Eidens et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, 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 PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2014. Spatial and temporal variability of benthic primary production in upwelling-influenced Colombian Caribbean coral reefs. PeerJ PrePrints 2:e258v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.258v1
Abstract
In Tayrona National Natural Park (Colombian Caribbean), abiotic factors such as light intensity, water temperature, and nutrient availability are subjected to high temporal variability due to seasonal coastal upwelling. These factors are major drivers controlling coral reef primary production. This offers the opportunity to assess the effects of abiotic factors on key coral reef ecosystem services in terms of productivity. We therefore quantified primary net (Pn) and gross production (Pg) of the dominant local primary producers (scleractinian corals, macroalgae, algal turfs, crustose coralline algae, and microphytobenthos) at a water current/wave-exposed (EXP) and -sheltered (SHE) site in an exemplary bay of Tayrona National Natural Park. A series of short-term incubations was conducted to quantify O2 fluxes of the different primary producers before and at the end of the upwelling event 2011/2012. At the level of the organism, scleractinian corals showed highest Pn and Pg rates before upwelling (16 and 19 mmol O2 m-2 specimen area h-1), and corals and algal turfs dominated the primary production at the end of upwelling (12 and 19 mmol O2 m-2 specimen area h-1, respectively). At the ecosystem level, corals contributed most to total Pn (EXP: 81 %; SHE: 65 %) and Pg (EXP: 78 %; SHE: 55 %) before the upwelling, while at the end of the upwelling, corals contributed most to Pn and Pg only at EXP (73 and 75 %) and macroalgae at SHE (52 and 46 %, respectively). Despite the significant spatial and temporal differences in individual productivity of investigated groups and their different contribution to reef productivity, no spatial or temporal differences in daily ecosystem Pn and Pg were detected (194 – 218 and 311 – 409 mmol O2 m-2 seafloor area d-1). Our findings therefore indicate that local autotrophic benthic reef communities are well adapted to pronounced fluctuations of environmental key parameters. This might lead to a higher resilience against climate change consequences and anthropogenic disturbances.
Supplemental Information
Analysis of variance (two-way ANOVA) for benthic cover of dominant benthic groups during non-upwelling and upwelling at the exposed and sheltered site in Gayraca Bay.
Season (upwelling, non-upwelling) and exposure (exposed, sheltered) as treatments, post-hoc pair-wise comparisons of the group means via Bonferroni’s tests (df = degrees of freedom; F = F-value; p = probability level, significance levels are *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001).
Analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) and Kruskal-Wallis tests for differences in photosynthesis (net and gross) within major functional primary producers in Gayraca Bay.
Post-hoc pair-wise comparisons of the group means via Bonferroni’s planned comparison tests (ANOVA) or pair-wise comparisons of the group medians via Dunn’s multiple comparisons tests (Kruskal-Wallis tests). a indicates log-transformed data, b indicates Kruskal-Wallis tests (df = degrees of freedom; F = F-value; H = H-value; p = probability level, significance levels are *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001).
Kruskal-Wallis tests for differences in contribution to benthic oxygen fluxes (net and gross) between major functional primary producers in Gayraca Bay.
Post-hoc pair-wise comparisons of the group medians via Dunn’s multiple comparisons tests (CCA = crustose coralline algae; df = degrees of freedom; H = H-value; p = probability level, significance levels are *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001).
Analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) and Kruskal-Wallis tests of contribution to benthic oxygen fluxes (net and gross) within major functional primary producers in Gayraca Bay.
Post-hoc pair-wise comparisons of the group means via Bonferroni’s planned comparison tests (ANOVA) or pair-wise comparisons of the group medians via Dunn’s multiple comparisons tests (Kruskal-Wallis tests). a indicates log-transformed data, b indicates Kruskal-Wallis tests (df = degrees of freedom; F = F-value; H = H-value; p = probability level, significance levels are *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001).
Analysis of variance (two-way ANOVA) for overall benthic oxygen fluxes (net and gross) during non-upwelling and upwelling at the exposed and sheltered site in Gayraca Bay.
Season (upwelling, non-upwelling) and exposure (exposed, sheltered) as treatments, (df = degrees of freedom; F = F-value; p = probability level, significance levels are *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001).
Analysis of variance (two-way ANOVA) for overall benthic oxygen fluxes (net and gross) during the upwelling 2011 and 2012 at the exposed and sheltered site in Gayraca Bay.
Time (upwelling 2011, upwelling 2012) and exposure (exposed, sheltered) as treatments, post-hoc pair-wise comparisons of the group means via Bonferroni’s tests (df = degrees of freedom; F = F-value; p = probability level, significance levels are *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001).