Coral reef disturbance and recovery dynamics differ across gradients of localized stressors in the Mariana Islands.

ABSTRACT: The individual contribution of natural disturbances, localized stressors, and environmental regimes upon longer-term reef dynamics remains poorly resolved for many locales despite its significance for management. This study examined coral reefs in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands across a 12-year period that included elevated Crown-of-Thorns Starfish densities (COTS) and tropical storms that were drivers of spatially-inconsistent disturbance and recovery patterns. At the island scale, disturbance impacts were highest on Saipan with reduced fish sizes, grazing urchins, and water quality, despite having a more favorable geological foundation for coral growth compared with Rota. However, individual drivers of reef dynamics were better quantified through site-level investigatio

SUBMITTER: Houk P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4148314 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature