DOI 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112659 Coral reefs are declining at an unprecedented rate as a consequence of local and global stressors. Using a 26-year monitoring database, we analyzed the loss and recovery dynamics of coral communities across seven islands and three archipelagos in French Polynesia. Reefs in the Society Islands recovered relatively quickly after disturbances, which was driven by the recovery of corals in the genus Pocillopora (84% of the total recovery). In contrast, reefs in the Tuamotu and Austral archipelagos recovered poorly or not at all. Across archipelagos, predation by crown-of-thorns starfish and destruction by cyclones outweighed the effects of heat stress events on coral mortality. Despite the apparently limited effect of temperature-mediated stressors, the homogenization of coral communities towards dominance of Pocillopora in the Society Archipelago and the failure to fully recover from disturbances in the other two archipelagos concern the resilience of Polynesian coral communities in the face of intensifying climate-driven stressors.
Coral cover, Disturbances, Recovery, Community shift, Pocillopora
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Publisher's official version | 12 | 3 Mo | ||
Fig. 1 SD. Genus-level coral population dynamics over time, showing the mean yearly estimate of coral cover ± standard errors. | - | 414 Ko | ||
Fig. 2 SD. Temperature and bleaching information for the seven islands. Left panel: sea surface temperature (SST), bleaching threshold and bleaching events (*). Right panel: Degree Heating Weeks.... | - | 665 Ko | ||
Fig. 3 SD. El Niño 3.4 index time-series. (A) Warm anomalies (≥ +0.65, dash line) correspond to El Niño, while cold anomalies (≤ –0.65, dash line) correspond to La Niña; neutral anomalies (> –0.65 ... | - | 483 Ko | ||
Fig. 4 SD. Linear model showing the contribution of Pocillopora in recovery vs the total recovery after disturbances. | - | 89 Ko | ||
Author's final draft | 35 | 1 Mo |
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