Temporal Effects of Recurrent Disturbances on Coral Traits in the Southern Persian Gulf
Location
HCAS Guy Harvey Oceanographic Center, Nova Southeastern University
Start
2-14-2025 3:45 PM
End
2-14-2025 4:00 PM
Type of Presentation
Oral Presentation
Abstract
The southern Persian Gulf is home to the world’s hottest coral reefs, makes it a useful system for examining the impacts of current and future thermal stress in the face of climate change. Thermal stress events in the southern Persian Gulf have reduced coral cover and diversity, which have resulted in well documented shifts in community composition and size structure. However, their impact on coral functional space, diversity, and redundancy remains unresolved. Here, I used a trait-based approach on a 14-year historic dataset (2008–2022) to assess how recurrent thermal disturbances (e.g., heat and cold stress events) impact trait composition, trait space, functional diversity and functional redundancy. I found that trait space reassembled over time and contained large areas which were empty or only occupied by a few genera. As trait space represents a specific combination of traits, the empty trait space suggested the loss of traits in the southern Persian Gulf, likely due to shrinking colony sizes and the loss of growth forms (i.e., table Acropora). Additionally, I found declining functional diversity with recurrent disturbances, while functional redundancy was very high because there were so few species that any species remaining were redundant. These results suggest that suggest that coral communities in the southern Persian Gulf contain a few combinations of traits, which appear to be highly redundant, indicating a loss of functions may have occurred. This suggests that the increasing frequency and intensity of thermal stress events pose a significant risk to functional composition and diversity of reefs globally.
Temporal Effects of Recurrent Disturbances on Coral Traits in the Southern Persian Gulf
HCAS Guy Harvey Oceanographic Center, Nova Southeastern University
The southern Persian Gulf is home to the world’s hottest coral reefs, makes it a useful system for examining the impacts of current and future thermal stress in the face of climate change. Thermal stress events in the southern Persian Gulf have reduced coral cover and diversity, which have resulted in well documented shifts in community composition and size structure. However, their impact on coral functional space, diversity, and redundancy remains unresolved. Here, I used a trait-based approach on a 14-year historic dataset (2008–2022) to assess how recurrent thermal disturbances (e.g., heat and cold stress events) impact trait composition, trait space, functional diversity and functional redundancy. I found that trait space reassembled over time and contained large areas which were empty or only occupied by a few genera. As trait space represents a specific combination of traits, the empty trait space suggested the loss of traits in the southern Persian Gulf, likely due to shrinking colony sizes and the loss of growth forms (i.e., table Acropora). Additionally, I found declining functional diversity with recurrent disturbances, while functional redundancy was very high because there were so few species that any species remaining were redundant. These results suggest that suggest that coral communities in the southern Persian Gulf contain a few combinations of traits, which appear to be highly redundant, indicating a loss of functions may have occurred. This suggests that the increasing frequency and intensity of thermal stress events pose a significant risk to functional composition and diversity of reefs globally.