Recent advances in understanding the effects of climate change on coral reefs

Hoey, Andrew S., Howells, Emily, Johansen, Jacob L., Hobbs, Jean-Paul A., Messmer, Vanessa, Bradbury, Dominique M., Wilson, Shaun K., and Pratchett, Morgan S. (2016) Recent advances in understanding the effects of climate change on coral reefs. Diversity, 8 (2). 12. pp. 1-22.

[img]
Preview
PDF (Published Version) - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (494kB) | Preview
View at Publisher Website: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/d8020012
 
93
1114


Abstract

Climate change is one of the greatest threats to the persistence of coral reefs. Sustained and ongoing increases in ocean temperatures and acidification are altering the structure and function of reefs globally. Here, we summarise recent advances in our understanding of the effects of climate change on scleractinian corals and reef fish. Although there is considerable among-species variability in responses to increasing temperature and seawater chemistry, changing temperature regimes are likely to have the greatest influence on the structure of coral and fish assemblages, at least over short–medium timeframes. Recent evidence of increases in coral bleaching thresholds, local genetic adaptation and inheritance of heat tolerance suggest that coral populations may have some capacity to respond to warming, although the extent to which these changes can keep pace with changing environmental conditions is unknown. For coral reef fishes, current evidence indicates increasing seawater temperature will be a major determinant of future assemblages, through both habitat degradation and direct effects on physiology and behaviour. The effects of climate change are, however, being compounded by a range of anthropogenic disturbances, which may undermine the capacity of coral reef organisms to acclimate and/or adapt to specific changes in environmental conditions.

Item ID: 47552
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1424-2818
Keywords: adaptation; acclimatization; thermal bleaching; ocean acidification; novel ecosystem; distorted food webs
Additional Information:

© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Date Deposited: 07 Mar 2017 22:33
FoR Codes: 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) @ 50%
41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4101 Climate change impacts and adaptation > 410102 Ecological impacts of climate change and ecological adaptation @ 50%
SEO Codes: 97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970106 Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences @ 100%
Downloads: Total: 1114
Last 12 Months: 96
More Statistics

Actions (Repository Staff Only)

Item Control Page Item Control Page