Functional Richness and Resilience in Coral Reef Communities
Within the Anthropocene the functional diversity of coral communities is changing rapidly, putting the resilience of many coral reef ecosystems in jeopardy. A better understanding of the relationship between coral functional diversity and reef resilience could reveal practical ways to achieve increa...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.780406/full |
| _version_ | 1811340756045004800 |
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| author | Bruno S. Carturan Bruno S. Carturan Lael Parrott Lael Parrott Lael Parrott Jason Pither Jason Pither |
| author_facet | Bruno S. Carturan Bruno S. Carturan Lael Parrott Lael Parrott Lael Parrott Jason Pither Jason Pither |
| author_sort | Bruno S. Carturan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Within the Anthropocene the functional diversity of coral communities is changing rapidly, putting the resilience of many coral reef ecosystems in jeopardy. A better understanding of the relationship between coral functional diversity and reef resilience could reveal practical ways to achieve increased resilience. However, manipulating coral diversity experimentally is challenging, and consequently the links between coral functional diversity, resilience, and ecosystem functioning remain obscure. We used an ecologically detailed agent-based model to conduct a virtual experiment in which functional diversity was manipulated over the entire trait space of scleractinian corals. Using an imputed trait dataset of 798 coral species and eight key functional traits, we assembled 245 functionally distinct coral communities, which we subjected to a cyclone and bleaching event. We then measured four different aspects of their resilience and quantified for each measure the respective effect of (i) the functional richness (FRic), and (ii) community-weighted means (CWM) of four types of trait: effect, resistance, recovery, and competitive. FRic represents the volume occupied by a community in the functional space, while CWM indicates the location of the communities’ centroid in the functional space. We found a significant and positive effect of FRic on three measures of resilience: communities with higher FRic recovered surface cover faster and had more rugosity and cover 10 years after the disturbances. In contrast, the resistance of the coral community—i.e., the capacity to maintain surface cover when subjected to the disturbances—was independent of FRic and was determined primarily by the CWM of resistance traits. By analyzing community dynamics and functional trade-offs, we show that FRic increases resilience via the selection and the insurance effects due to the presence of competitive species in the functional space, i.e., those highly dominant species that contribute the most to the complexity of the habitat and recover quickly from disturbances. Building from the results of our experiment and the trait correlation analysis, we discuss the potential for FRic to serve as a proxy measure of resilience and we present a strategy that can provide direction to on-going reef restoration efforts, and pave the way for sustaining coral communities in a context of rapid global change. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T18:46:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ca9c357e43924be898f4fec0cc3f0cc2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-701X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T18:46:38Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
| spelling | doaj.art-ca9c357e43924be898f4fec0cc3f0cc22022-12-22T02:34:34ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution2296-701X2022-06-011010.3389/fevo.2022.780406780406Functional Richness and Resilience in Coral Reef CommunitiesBruno S. Carturan0Bruno S. Carturan1Lael Parrott2Lael Parrott3Lael Parrott4Jason Pither5Jason Pither6Department of Biology, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, CanadaInstitute for Biodiversity, Resilience, and Ecosystem Services, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, CanadaDepartment of Biology, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, CanadaInstitute for Biodiversity, Resilience, and Ecosystem Services, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, CanadaDepartment of Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, CanadaDepartment of Biology, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, CanadaInstitute for Biodiversity, Resilience, and Ecosystem Services, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, CanadaWithin the Anthropocene the functional diversity of coral communities is changing rapidly, putting the resilience of many coral reef ecosystems in jeopardy. A better understanding of the relationship between coral functional diversity and reef resilience could reveal practical ways to achieve increased resilience. However, manipulating coral diversity experimentally is challenging, and consequently the links between coral functional diversity, resilience, and ecosystem functioning remain obscure. We used an ecologically detailed agent-based model to conduct a virtual experiment in which functional diversity was manipulated over the entire trait space of scleractinian corals. Using an imputed trait dataset of 798 coral species and eight key functional traits, we assembled 245 functionally distinct coral communities, which we subjected to a cyclone and bleaching event. We then measured four different aspects of their resilience and quantified for each measure the respective effect of (i) the functional richness (FRic), and (ii) community-weighted means (CWM) of four types of trait: effect, resistance, recovery, and competitive. FRic represents the volume occupied by a community in the functional space, while CWM indicates the location of the communities’ centroid in the functional space. We found a significant and positive effect of FRic on three measures of resilience: communities with higher FRic recovered surface cover faster and had more rugosity and cover 10 years after the disturbances. In contrast, the resistance of the coral community—i.e., the capacity to maintain surface cover when subjected to the disturbances—was independent of FRic and was determined primarily by the CWM of resistance traits. By analyzing community dynamics and functional trade-offs, we show that FRic increases resilience via the selection and the insurance effects due to the presence of competitive species in the functional space, i.e., those highly dominant species that contribute the most to the complexity of the habitat and recover quickly from disturbances. Building from the results of our experiment and the trait correlation analysis, we discuss the potential for FRic to serve as a proxy measure of resilience and we present a strategy that can provide direction to on-going reef restoration efforts, and pave the way for sustaining coral communities in a context of rapid global change.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.780406/fullFRicCWMresiliencefunctioncoraltrait framework |
| spellingShingle | Bruno S. Carturan Bruno S. Carturan Lael Parrott Lael Parrott Lael Parrott Jason Pither Jason Pither Functional Richness and Resilience in Coral Reef Communities Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution FRic CWM resilience function coral trait framework |
| title | Functional Richness and Resilience in Coral Reef Communities |
| title_full | Functional Richness and Resilience in Coral Reef Communities |
| title_fullStr | Functional Richness and Resilience in Coral Reef Communities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Functional Richness and Resilience in Coral Reef Communities |
| title_short | Functional Richness and Resilience in Coral Reef Communities |
| title_sort | functional richness and resilience in coral reef communities |
| topic | FRic CWM resilience function coral trait framework |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.780406/full |
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