Co-occurring anthropogenic stressors reduce the timeframe of environmental viability for the world's coral reefs.

ABSTRACT: Anthropogenic disturbances are posing unprecedented challenges to the persistence of ecosystems worldwide. The speed at which these disturbances reach an ecosystem's tolerance thresholds will determine the time available for adaptation and conservation. Here, we aim to calculate the year after which a given environmental stressor permanently exceeds the bounds of an ecosystem's tolerance. Ecosystem thresholds are here defined as limits in a given stressor beyond which ecosystems have showed considerable changes in community assembly and functioning, becoming remnants of what they once were, but not necessarily leading to species extirpation or extinction. Using the world's coral reefs as a case example, we show that the projected effects of marine heatwaves, ocean acidification, storms, la

SUBMITTER: Setter RO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9553053 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature