Cartwright, Paula J., Browne, Nicola K., Belton, David, Parnum, Iain, O'leary, Michael, Valckenaere, Jurgen, Fearns, Peter, and Lowe, Ryan (2023) Long-term spatial variations in turbidity and temperature provide new insights into coral-algal states on extreme/marginal reefs. Coral Reefs, 42. pp. 859-872.

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Abstract

Globally, coral reefs are under threat, with many exhibiting degradation or a shift towards algal-dominated regimes following marine heat waves, and other disturbance events. Marginal coral reefs existing under naturally extreme conditions, such as turbid water reefs, may be more resilient than their clear water counterparts as well as offer some insight into how reefs could look in the future under climate change. Here, we surveyed 27 benthic habitats across an environmental stress gradient in the Exmouth Gulf region of north Western Australia immediately following a marine heatwave event. We used multidecadal remotely sensed turbidity (from an in-situ validated dataset) and temperature, to assess how these environmental drivers influence variability in benthic communities and coral morphology. Long-term turbidity and temperature variability were associated with macroalgal colonisation when exceeding a combined threshold. Coral cover was strongly negatively associated with temperature variability, and positively associated with depth, and wave power, while coral morphology diversity was positively associated with turbidity. While moderate turbidity (long-term average ~ 2 mg/L suspended matter) appeared to raise the threshold for coral bleaching and macroalgal dominance, regions with higher temperature variability (> 3.5 °C) appeared to have already reached this threshold. The region with the least turbidity and temperature variability had the highest amount of coral bleaching from a recent heatwave event and moderate levels of both these variables may confer resilience to coral reefs.

Item ID:	79144
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1432-0975
Keywords:	Exmouth Gulf; Marginal reefs; Coral-algal reefs; Turbidity; Macro-algae; Coral bleaching
Copyright Information:	© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Date Deposited:	26 Jun 2023 23:58
FoR Codes:	41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4102 Ecological applications > 410203 Ecosystem function @ 30% 37 EARTH SCIENCES > 3708 Oceanography > 370801 Biological oceanography @ 30% 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4199 Other environmental sciences > 419999 Other environmental sciences not elsewhere classified @ 40%
SEO Codes:	18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1802 Coastal and estuarine systems and management > 180201 Assessment and management of coastal and estuarine ecosystems @ 100%
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