Recruitment Drives Spatial Variation in Recovery Rates of Resilient Coral Reefs.

ABSTRACT: Tropical reefs often undergo acute disturbances that result in landscape-scale loss of coral. Due to increasing threats to coral reefs from climate change and anthropogenic perturbations, it is critical to understand mechanisms that drive recovery of these ecosystems. We explored this issue on the fore reef of Moorea, French Polynesia, following a crown-of-thorns seastar outbreak and cyclone that dramatically reduced cover of coral. During the five-years following the disturbances, the rate of re-establishment of coral cover differed systematically around the triangular-shaped island; coral cover returned most rapidly at sites where the least amount of live coral remained after the disturbances. Although sites differed greatly in the rate of return of coral, all showed at least some eviden

SUBMITTER: Holbrook SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5943288 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature