Recruitment and Succession in a Tropical Benthic Community in Response to In-Situ Ocean Acidification.

ABSTRACT: Ocean acidification is a pervasive threat to coral reef ecosystems, and our understanding of the ecological processes driving patterns in tropical benthic community development in conditions of acidification is limited. We deployed limestone recruitment tiles in low aragonite saturation (Ωarag) waters during an in-situ field experiment at Puerto Morelos, Mexico, and compared them to tiles placed in control zones over a 14-month investigation. The early stages of succession showed relatively little difference in coverage of calcifying organisms between the low Ωarag and control zones. However, after 14 months of development, tiles from the low Ωarag zones had up to 70% less cover of calcifying organisms coincident with 42% more fleshy algae than the controls. The percent cover of biofilm an

SUBMITTER: Crook ED 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4718464 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature