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PLoS One
2012 Jan 01;74:e35456. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035456.
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Acanthaster planci outbreak: decline in coral health, coral size structure modification and consequences for obligate decapod assemblages.
Leray M
,
Béraud M
,
Anker A
,
Chancerelle Y
,
Mills SC
.
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Although benthic motile invertebrate communities encompass the vast majority of coral reef diversity, their response to habitat modification has been poorly studied. A variety of benthic species, particularly decapods, provide benefits to their coral host enabling them to cope with environmental stressors, and as a result benefit the overall diversity of coral-associated species. However, little is known about how invertebrate assemblages associated with corals will be affected by global perturbations, (either directly or indirectly via their coral host) or their consequences for ecosystem resilience. Analysis of a ten year dataset reveals that the greatest perturbation at Moorea over this time was an outbreak of the corallivorous sea star Acanthaster planci from 2006 to 2009 impacting habitat health, availability and size structure of Pocillopora spp. populations and highlights a positive relationship between coral head size and survival. We then present the results of a mensurative study in 2009 conducted at the end of the perturbation (A. planci outbreak) describing how coral-decapod communities change with percent coral mortality for a selected coral species, Pocillopora eydouxi. The loss of coral tissue as a consequence of A. planci consumption led to an increase in rarefied total species diversity, but caused drastic modifications in community composition driven by a shift from coral obligate to non-obligate decapod species. Our study highlights that larger corals left with live tissue in 2009, formed a restricted habitat where coral obligate decapods, including mutualists, could subsist. We conclude that the size structure of Pocillopora populations at the time of an A. planci outbreak may greatly condition the magnitude of coral mortality as well as the persistence of local populations of obligate decapods.
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???displayArticle.pmcLink???PMC3328453 ???displayArticle.link???PLoS One
Figure 1. Effects of a recent outbreak of Acanthaster planci from 2006–2009 on Pocillopora populations.Size-class (cm2) distributions of live (white), partially dead (grey) and completely dead (black) corals (Pocillopora spp.) as a proportion of the total number of coral heads at each site. High resolution photographs of 60 permanent quadrats were taken at three sites in Moorea (20 quadrats/site) every two years from 2000 to 2008 at the sites Vaipahu and Haapiti and from 2001–2009 at Tiahura. Numbers in parentheses represent the total number of Pocillopora measured per site.
Figure 2. Proportion of coral that survived the 2006–2009 outbreak of A. planci for each coral size class.Survival for each size class was calculated from (the number of live and partially dead Pocillopora in 2008–2009)/(the number of live and partially dead Pocillopora in 2005–2006)×100. Counts of Pocillopora at the three study sites were combined. Linear regression: y = 6.14x; R2 = 0.61, N = 11, p = 0.002.
Figure 3. Effect of the loss of live coral tissue on overall decapod species richness.(A) Total decapod species richness: polynomial regression, y = −0.0025x
2+0.1214x+22.258; R2 = 0.72, N = 82, p<0.001. (B) Rarefied total decapod species richness: polynomial regression, y = −0.0012x
2+0.0746x+10.352; R2 = 0.67, N = 82, p<0.001.
Figure 4. Response of coral obligate and non-obligate decapod species to the loss of live coral tissue.White diamonds and discontinuous line = non-obligate decapod species richness y = −0.0012x
2−0.0737x+21.739; R2 = 0.85, N = 82, p<0.001. Black diamonds and continuous line = coral obligate decapod species richness: y = −0.0013x
2+0.1951x+0.5189 ; R2 = 0.69, N = 82, p<0.001.
Figure 5. Ordination plots representing the composition of decapod communities with the loss of coral tissue.Non-metric multidimensional scaling plots were computed using Jaccard, an incidence based metric (A) and Bray-Curtis, an abundance based metric (B). Light grey, dark grey and black dots represent non-eaten, partially eaten and dead Pocillopora respectively. Mean ± SE beta diversity (average distance to group centroid) is plotted below the corresponding ordination plot (C and D).
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