The mortality, recovery, and community shifts of scleractinian corals in Puerto Rico one decade after the 2005 regional bleaching event
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Ecology, Marine Biology
- Keywords
- shifts, coral assemblages, Orbicella annularis, Caribbean, coral reefs, recovery, mortality
- Copyright
- © 2017 García-Sais 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
- 2017. The mortality, recovery, and community shifts of scleractinian corals in Puerto Rico one decade after the 2005 regional bleaching event. PeerJ Preprints 5:e2898v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2898v1
Abstract
This work analyzes the mortality, recovery, and shifts in the composition of scleractinian corals in Puerto Rico one decade after the 2005 regional coral bleaching event. Temporal and spatial patterns of coral community structure were examined using a stratified, non-random sampling approach based on five permanent transects per reef at 16 reef stations. A negative correlation between percent coral cover loss and light attenuation coefficient (Kd490) was observed, suggesting that water turbidity played a major role in coral protection during the bleaching event (“sunblock effect”). Loss of coral cover after the bleaching event was lower at nearshore reefs, and with increasing depth at oceanic and shelf-edge reefs. By 2015, coral recovery was observed at all reefs surveyed, but coastal reefs exhibited a higher rate of recovery. The responses of coral assemblages varied after the bleaching event, including shifts in cover from massive corals (Orbicella spp.) to turf algae and/or by opportunistic (Porites astreoides) and branching corals (Madracis auretenra, P. porites); partial recovery by O. annularis complex; and no measurable change in coral assemblages before and after the event.
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
Supplemental Information
Figure 1
Figure 1. Location of 16 reef stations from eight areas in Puerto Rico: Isla Desecheo, Isla de Mona, Rincón, Mayagüez, Cabo Rojo, Guánica, Ponce, and Isla de Vieques.
Figure 2
Variations of mean coral cover (%) between monitoring surveys at: a) Isla de Vieques, b) Ponce, c) Guánica, d) Cabo Rojo, e) Mayagüez, f) Rincón, g) Isla de Mona, and h) Isla Desecheo in Puerto Rico. The dashed lines signify years in which no data were collected.
Figure 3
(a) Negative correlation between coral cover loss (%) and attenuation coefficient (Kd490) during 2006 and 2008 and (b) positive correlation between coral cover recovery (%) and light attenuation coefficient (Kd490) from 2009 and 2012 at reef stations in Guánica, Mayagüez (10m), Ponce, and Isla Desecheo (15m).
Figure 4
Multidimensional scaling (MDS) plots showing variations in coral assemblages between monitoring surveys at a) Mayagüez, b) Rincón, c) Guánica, d) Isla Desecheo and e) Ponce. Given the lack of interaction between year and depth, depths were pooled for visualization purposes. Due to the low sampling of years, data from Isla de Mona, Isla de Vieques, and Cabo Rojo were excluded from the MDS. Graphs display distance of centroids with year as the grouping factor.
Figure 5
Variations of mean percent cover by coral species during monitoring surveys at: a) Mayagüez 10m, b) Isla Desecheo 15m and c) 20m, and d) Isla de Mona 10m and e) 20m. Coral codes are OANN=Orbicella annularis (complex), PAST=Porites astreoides, PPOR=P. Porites, MAUR=Madracis auretenra, and CNAT=Colpophyllia natans.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Linear regression showing a positive relationship between the average chlorophyll-a and attenuation coefficient (Kd490) in the vicinity of reefs surveyed in Puerto Rico from 2000 to 2013.
Coral cover per site
Percent linear cover by scleractinian corals along transects during the different years and depths.
Orbicella annularis complex cover
Percent linear cover by Orbicella annularis complex along transects during the different years and depths.
Coral species cover
The cover of the different coral species between the reef sites in Puerto Rico. Coral species listed contributed to at least 10% of the total cover.
Table 1
Geographic coordinates, depths and monitoring years for Natural Reserve coral reef sites in Puerto Rico. Abbreviations for reef stations are listed.
Table 2
Results of the generalized additive model (GAM) to assess the relationship between coral cover loss (%) and attenuation coefficient (Kd490) during 2006 and 2008 at reef stations in Guánica, Mayagüez (10m), Ponce, and Isla Desecheo (15m). Sites were selected as random factors, while Kd490 values were fixed.
Table 3
Results of two-way and one-way repeated measures ANOVA procedures testing the variations of coral cover between depths and year at the different natural reserve reef sites in Puerto Rico.
Table 4
Two-way and one-way repeated measures ANOVA procedures testing the variations of reef substrate cover by Orbicella annularis (complex) between depths and year at the different natural reserve sites surveyed in Puerto Rico.
Table 5
Results of the generalized additive model (GAM) to assess the relationship between coral cover recovery (%) and attenuation coefficient (Kd490) from 2009 to 2012 at reef stations in Guánica, Mayagüez (10m), Ponce, and Isla Desecheo (15m). Sites were selected as random factors, while Kd490 values were fixed.
Table 6
Permutational Multivariate Analysis of Variance (PERMANOVA) procedures testing the variations of coral composition between years and depths.