Coral reef crisis in deep and shallow reefs: 30 years of constancy and change in reefs of Curacao and Bonaire
Coral reef crisis in deep and shallow reefs: 30 years of constancy and change in reefs of Curacao and Bonaire
复制标题
DOI：
10.1007/s00338-005-0009-1
复制
发表时间：
2005-11-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Meesters, EH
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bak, RP;Nieuwland, G;Meesters, EH
据认为，全世界的珊瑚礁都在减少，但现有数据实际上仅限于浅于25米的珊瑚礁。深礁（30-40米）中的虫黄藻珊瑚群落相对未被研究。我们的问题是：就珊瑚覆盖率和珊瑚死亡率而言，深海珊瑚礁中发生了什么？我们比较物种组成，珊瑚死亡率和珊瑚覆盖在加勒比海（库拉考和博内尔岛）深（30-40米）和浅礁（10-20米）的变化，使用长期（1973-2002年）的数据从永久照片样方。大约有20种虫黄藻珊瑚在深礁群落中很常见，以Agaricia sp.为主，珊瑚覆盖率高达60%与浅礁相比，过去30年来深礁的珊瑚覆盖面或珊瑚群落数量没有减少。在深海珊瑚礁中，非杀伞菌的物种正在减少，但杀伞菌的优势将被自然灾难性死亡所打断，如深海珊瑚漂白和风暴。在深礁环境中，温度是一个波动很大的变量，极低的温度可能与深礁漂白有关。
Coral reefs are thought to be in worldwide decline but available data are practically limited to reefs shallower than 25 m. Zooxanthellate coral communities in deep reefs (30-40 m) are relatively unstudied. Our question is: what is happening in deep reefs in terms of coral cover and coral mortality? We compare changes in species composition, coral mortality, and coral cover at Caribbean (Curacao and Bonaire) deep (30-40 m) and shallow reefs (10-20 m) using long-term (1973-2002) data from permanent photo quadrats. About 20 zooxanthellate coral species are common in the deep-reef communities, dominated by Agaricia sp., with coral cover up to 60%. In contrast with shallow reefs, there is no decrease in coral cover or number of coral colonies in deep reefs over the last 30 years. In deep reefs, non-agaricid species are decreasing but agaricid domination will be interrupted by natural catastrophic mortality such as deep coral bleaching and storms. Temperature is a vastly fluctuating variable in the deep-reef environment with extremely low temperatures possibly related to deep-reef bleaching.