Remote coral reefs can sustain high growth potential and may match future sea-level trends.
Remote coral reefs can sustain high growth potential and may match future sea-level trends.
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DOI：
10.1038/srep18289
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发表时间：
2015-12-16
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
East HK
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Perry CT;Murphy GN;Graham NA;Wilson SK;Januchowski-Hartley FA;East HK
气候引起的干扰正在促成珊瑚礁生态在全球范围内的快速变化。其结果是，珊瑚礁碳酸盐预算正在下降，威胁到珊瑚礁的增长潜力，从而威胁到追踪海平面上升的能力。因此，受干扰的珊瑚礁能否恢复其增长潜力，以及恢复的速度有多快，是关键的研究问题。在这里，我们通过测量查戈斯群岛(印度洋)28个珊瑚礁的碳酸盐预算来解决这些问题，这些珊瑚礁虽然地理位置偏远，在很大程度上与复杂的人类影响隔绝，但在1998年变暖事件期间经历了严重的(90%)珊瑚死亡。大多数珊瑚礁上的珊瑚群落迅速恢复，我们表明，2015年碳酸盐预算平均为+3.7G(G = kg CaCO_3 m−2年−1)。最重要的是，1998年受影响最严重的珊瑚礁Acropora占主导地位的珊瑚礁的生产率到2015年平均为+8.4G，与前人类(全新世)干扰条件下的估计值相当。这些积极的预算反映在以Acropora为主的珊瑚礁上的高珊瑚礁增长率(4.2 mm yr−1)，表明这些偏远珊瑚礁的碳酸盐预算已从主要的气候驱动干扰中迅速恢复。至关重要的是，这些珊瑚礁仍有能力以超过测量的区域全新世中晚期和20世纪海平面上升的速度增长，并接近政府间气候变化专门委员会预测的海平面上升到2100年。
Climate-induced disturbances are contributing to rapid, global-scale changes in coral reef ecology. As a consequence, reef carbonate budgets are declining, threatening reef growth potential and thus capacity to track rising sea-levels. Whether disturbed reefs can recover their growth potential and how rapidly, are thus critical research questions. Here we address these questions by measuring the carbonate budgets of 28 reefs across the Chagos Archipelago (Indian Ocean) which, while geographically remote and largely isolated from compounding human impacts, experienced severe (>90%) coral mortality during the 1998 warming event. Coral communities on most reefs recovered rapidly and we show that carbonate budgets in 2015 average +3.7 G (G = kg CaCO3 m−2 yr−1). Most significantly the production rates on Acropora-dominated reefs, the corals most severely impacted in 1998, averaged +8.4 G by 2015, comparable with estimates under pre-human (Holocene) disturbance conditions. These positive budgets are reflected in high reef growth rates (4.2 mm yr−1) on Acropora-dominated reefs, demonstrating that carbonate budgets on these remote reefs have recovered rapidly from major climate-driven disturbances. Critically, these reefs retain the capacity to grow at rates exceeding measured regional mid-late Holocene and 20th century sea-level rise, and close to IPCC sea-level rise projections through to 2100.