A test of adaptive strategy theory using fifteen years of change in coral abundance

Kuo, Chao-Yang, Pratchett, Morgan S., Madin, Joshua S., and Baird, Andrew H. (2023) A test of adaptive strategy theory using fifteen years of change in coral abundance. Coral Reefs, 42 (4). pp. 951-966.

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Abstract

Universal Adaptive Strategy Theory aims to predict how taxa and assemblages respond to disturbances on the basis of adaptive strategy group (ASG) membership. Here, we test such predictions using the adaptive strategy scheme for reef-building corals developed by Darling et al. (Ecol Lett 15:1378–1386, 2012) and a long-term dataset of coral assemblage structure from inshore reefs on the central Great Barrier Reef. Several disturbances including mass bleaching and tropical storms were recorded in this 15-year interval from 1998 to 2013. ASG membership did not predict how a given taxon responded to disturbance. In fact, all ASGs were on average equally affected by bleaching and a period of multiple disturbances. Furthermore, there were no consistent winners at these sites in response to the 1998 bleaching in contrast to previous work suggesting clear hierarchies in susceptibility to bleaching. In conclusion, while further efforts to re-evaluate the utility of ASGs for reef corals should be encouraged our results and a re-examination of the literature suggests that direct trait-based approaches might prove more useful when exploring how corals respond to disturbance.

Item ID: 79532
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1432-0975
Keywords: Adaptive strategy, Bleaching, Coral reefs, Disturbance, Global warming, Recovery
Copyright Information: © The Author(s) 2023. 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. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Funders: Australian Research Council (ARC), ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
Projects and Grants: ARC FT0990652, ARC CE0561432, ARC CE140100020
Date Deposited: 23 Jan 2024 01:02
FoR Codes: 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) @ 70%
41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4101 Climate change impacts and adaptation > 410102 Ecological impacts of climate change and ecological adaptation @ 30%
SEO Codes: 19 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURAL HAZARDS > 1901 Adaptation to climate change > 190102 Ecosystem adaptation to climate change @ 100%
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