Declining coral skeletal extension for forereef colonies of Siderastrea siderea on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, Southern Belize.
Declining coral skeletal extension for forereef colonies of Siderastrea siderea on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, Southern Belize.
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0014615
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发表时间：
2011-02-16
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Weiss JM
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Castillo KD;Ries JB;Weiss JM
自然和人为压力预计将对珊瑚礁产生越来越多的负面影响。了解这些环境压力如何影响珊瑚骨骼生长，应该会提高我们预测它们未来可能如何影响珊瑚礁的能力。我们研究了生长缓慢的巨型珊瑚Siderastrea siderea的骨骼伸展的世纪尺度变化，这些珊瑚居住在西加勒比海中美洲堡礁系统(MBRS)的前礁、后礁和近岸礁石中。提取了13个铁锈菌核心，将其切片，并进行了X射线检查。从相邻的低密度和高密度生长带估计每年的骨骼延伸。自20世纪初以来，前礁S.siderea殖民地的年平均骨骼伸展速度从最快转变为最慢，而后礁和近岸殖民地的值保持相对稳定。前礁群、后礁群和近岸群的年骨骼伸展变化率分别为−0.020±0.005、0.011±0.006和−0.008±0.006 mm yr−1[平均值±SE]。前礁和近岸菱形藻的这些值分别比后礁群体低0.031±0.008和0.019±0.009 mm yr−1。然而，在过去的一个世纪里，只有麦角沙门氏菌的骨骼延伸率在统计上有显著下降。我们的结果表明，前礁S.siderea群体比后礁和近岸群体更容易受到环境压力的影响，后者可能在历史上暴露于更高的自然基线应激源。或者，来自危地马拉和洪都拉斯分水岭的沉积物羽流、营养物质和污染可能会对MBR的珊瑚礁环境造成不成比例的影响。我们目前正在重建影响MBR的环境应激源的历史，以限制观察到的珊瑚骨骼生长减少的原因(S)。这将提高我们预测和潜在地减轻未来环境压力对珊瑚礁生态系统的影响的能力。
Natural and anthropogenic stressors are predicted to have increasingly negative impacts on coral reefs. Understanding how these environmental stressors have impacted coral skeletal growth should improve our ability to predict how they may affect coral reefs in the future. We investigated century-scale variations in skeletal extension for the slow-growing massive scleractinian coral Siderastrea siderea inhabiting the forereef, backreef, and nearshore reefs of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS) in the western Caribbean Sea. Thirteen S. siderea cores were extracted, slabbed, and X-rayed. Annual skeletal extension was estimated from adjacent low- and high-density growth bands. Since the early 1900s, forereef S. siderea colonies have shifted from exhibiting the fastest to the slowest average annual skeletal extension, while values for backreef and nearshore colonies have remained relatively constant. The rates of change in annual skeletal extension were −0.020±0.005, 0.011±0.006, and −0.008±0.006 mm yr−1 per year [mean±SE] for forereef, backreef, and nearshore colonies respectively. These values for forereef and nearshore S. siderea were significantly lower by 0.031±0.008 and by 0.019±0.009 mm yr−1 per year, respectively, than for backreef colonies. However, only forereef S. siderea exhibited a statistically significant decline in annual skeletal extension over the last century. Our results suggest that forereef S. siderea colonies are more susceptible to environmental stress than backreef and nearshore counterparts, which may have historically been exposed to higher natural baseline stressors. Alternatively, sediment plumes, nutrients, and pollution originating from watersheds of Guatemala and Honduras may disproportionately impact the forereef environment of the MBRS. We are presently reconstructing the history of environmental stressors that have impacted the MBRS to constrain the cause(s) of the observed reductions in coral skeletal growth. This should improve our ability to predict and potentially mitigate the effects of future environmental stressors on coral reef ecosystems.
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