Culling corallivores improves short-term coral recovery under bleaching scenarios.

ABSTRACT: Management of coral predators, corallivores, is recommended to improve coral cover on tropical coral reefs under projected increasing levels of accumulated thermal stress, but whether corallivore management can improve coral cover, which is necessary for large-scale operationalisation, remains equivocal. Here, using a multispecies ecosystem model, we investigate intensive management of an invertebrate corallivore, the Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster cf. solaris), and show that culling could improve coral cover at sub-reef spatial scales, but efficacy varied substantially within and among reefs. Simulated thermal stress events attenuated management-derived coral cover improvements and was dependent on the level of accumulated thermal stress, the thermal sensitivity of coral communitie

SUBMITTER: Rogers JGD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9085818 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature