Depth variation in benthic community response to repeated marine heatwaves on remote Central Indian Ocean reefs

Coral reefs are increasingly impacted by climate-induced warming events. However, there is limited empirical evidence on the variation in the response of shallow coral reef communities to thermal stress across depths. Here, we assess depth-dependent changes in coral reef benthic communities followin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Royal Society open science 2024-03, Vol.11 (3), p.231246-18
Main Authors: Sannassy Pilly, Sivajyodee, Roche, Ronan C, Richardson, Laura E, Turner, John R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algae
Archipelagoes
Benthic communities
Chemical analysis
climate-induced thermal stress
Community ecology
Coral reefs
depth zonation
Ecology, Conservation, and Global Change Biology
Empirical analysis
Heat waves
marine heatwaves
remote reef systems
Seawater
shallow coral reefs
Temperature effects
Thermal stress
Water analysis
Water temperature
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Summary:Coral reefs are increasingly impacted by climate-induced warming events. However, there is limited empirical evidence on the variation in the response of shallow coral reef communities to thermal stress across depths. Here, we assess depth-dependent changes in coral reef benthic communities following successive marine heatwaves from 2015 to 2017 across a 5-25 m depth gradient in the remote Chagos Archipelago, Central Indian Ocean. Our analyses show an overall decline in hard and soft coral cover and an increase in crustose coralline algae, sponge and reef pavement following successive marine heatwaves on the remote reef system. Our findings indicate that the changes in benthic communities in response to elevated seawater temperatures varied across depths. We found greater changes in benthic group cover at shallow depths (5-15 m) compared with deeper zones (15-25 m). The loss of hard coral cover was better predicted by initial thermal stress, while the loss of soft coral was associated with repeated thermal stress following successive warming events. Our study shows that benthic communities extending to 25 m depth were impacted by successive marine heatwaves, supporting concerns about the resilience of shallow coral reef communities to increasingly severe climate-driven warming events.
ISSN:2054-5703
2054-5703
DOI:10.1098/rsos.231246