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Decline of forereef corals in response to recent warming linked to history of thermal exposure

Nature Climate Change volume 2, pages 756–760 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Rising ocean temperatures have reduced rates of coral calcification and increased rates of coral mortality, thereby negatively impacting the health of coral reef ecosystems1,2. Nevertheless, the response of corals to thermal stress seems to vary spatially across the reef environment3,4. Here, we show that between 1982 and 2008 in the western Caribbean Sea, skeletal extension within forereef colonies of the reef-building coral Siderastrea siderea declined with increasing seawater temperature, whereas extension rates of backreef and nearshore colonies were not impacted. These results suggest that forereef S. siderea corals are more vulnerable to ocean warming than their backreef and nearshore counterparts. This may arise from backreef and nearshore coral colonies experiencing greater baseline diurnal and seasonal thermal fluctuations than forereef colonies, which may promote acclimatization and/or adaptation to more recent anthropogenic thermal stress. These findings reveal how corals have responded to recent anthropogenic warming, offer insights into how they are likely to respond to future warming and highlight the importance of understanding cross-reef differences in coral thermal tolerance for managing coral reef ecosystems in an era of rapid regional and global climate change.

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Figure 1: Locations of core extraction sites, SST grids and in situ temperature loggers across reef zones in southern Belize.
Figure 2: Average summertime SST and average annual coral skeletal extension.
Figure 3: Relationship between summertime SST and coral skeletal extension across reef zones.
Figure 4: Slopes of the relationship between summertime SST and coral skeletal extension for the three reef zones.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Bruno, D. Garbutt and V. Jacobs for field support. We thank C. Martens, A. Mooney and members of the Bruno laboratory for discussions about the subjects presented here. We thank the Belize Fisheries Department for providing the necessary permits for the collection and exportation of coral cores. We are grateful to the University of North Carolina Campus Health Services Radiology Unit for providing access to X-ray facilities. This research was supported by the Carolina Postdoctoral Fellowship for Faculty Diversity (to K.D.C.), Seeding Postdoctoral Innovators in Research and Education (NIGMS 5K12-GM000678) fellowship to K.D.C., NOAA award NA11OAR431016 (to J.B.R. and K.D.C.) and NSF award 1031995 (to J.B.R.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Sciences, 3202 Venable Hall, Campus Box # 3300, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3300, USA

    Karl D. Castillo & Justin B. Ries

  2. Curriculum for the Environment and Ecology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3275, USA

    Jack M. Weiss

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA

    Fernando P. Lima

  4. CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal

    Fernando P. Lima

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  1. Karl D. Castillo
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Contributions

K.D.C. and J.B.R. designed the experiment. K.D.C., J.B.R., J.M.W. and F.P.L. assembled the input data. J.M.W. carried out the statistical analysis with support from K.D.C. and J.B.R. K.D.C. and J.B.R. wrote the paper in collaboration with J.M.W. and F.P.L. All authors read and provided comments and feedback on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Karl D. Castillo.

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Castillo, K., Ries, J., Weiss, J. et al. Decline of forereef corals in response to recent warming linked to history of thermal exposure. Nature Clim Change 2, 756–760 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1577

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