[Coral-List] amazing recovery of corals in the Southern Line Islands after bleaching mortality
Douglas Fenner
douglasfennertassi at gmail.com
Fri Nov 4 06:51:36 UTC 2022
Thank you for pointing us to this video, Austin! Amazing.
Looks to me like an anthias. Maybe Pseudanthias bicolor? The range of the
species includes the Line Is. (Lieske & Myers, 2001). They are
planctivores. Anthias can form large schools, most individuals are female,
schools commonly have several males, and if males are removed, several
females will change sex to males until the sex ratio is restored. Only
present in the Indo-Pacific.
Also a reminder that there are several species of table corals, such as
Acropora hyacinthus, A. cytherea, and A. clathrata. There are also several
additional species which can vary from table-like to plate-like, and/or
have multiple tiers.
I notice that when the corals were dead, there was a high cover of
coralline algae. Some coralline algae have "chemical flypaper" that
attracts coral larvae to settle. Coralline algae are much more abundant on
the US islands and reefs south of Hawaii, including in the northern Line
Islands, Howland and Baker near the Phoenix Is, and all islands in American
Samoa, as documented in Figure 2b of Vroom (2011). Quite a startling
graph, every single island and reef in that area in the US system has more
coralline algae cover than in every single island and reef in the Hawaiian
Islands and Mariana archipelago, inhabited or not.
Vroom (2011) writes:
" A 1904 coring study that examined reefs to a depth of over 330 m at
Funafuti Atoll (Tuvalu) revealed that the organisms responsible for reef
accretion in order of importance were: (1) crustose coralline red algae,
(2) Halimeda, (3) foraminifera, and lastly, coral [16]. Other classic and
recent studies provide similar results, revealing portions of many fossil
and existent reef systems from around the globe that are composed primarily
of algal or foraminiferal deposits (e.g., Fiji [53], the Gilbert Islands
[54], Indonesia [19], Bermuda [55, 56], Atol das Rocas (Brazil) [57],
Ukraine [58], Hawaii [59], Australia [52], Spain [51], and Sardinia [60]."
We had a discussion on coral-list some time ago about whether coralline
algae were an important part of reef-building or not, which this is
relevant to.
So I have some suspicion that the abundance of coralline algae might have
contributed to this very fast recovery of coral cover on these reefs. In
terms of coral cover, this is a pretty amazing demonstration of resilience
at a time when resilience is clearly lacking in much of the Caribbean and
maybe some places elsewhere as well. This, along with the amazing recovery
of coral cover in the northern and southern sections of the Great Barrier
Reef as shown in the Australian Institute of Marine Science monitoring
results I pointed to earlier, show that reef resilience is not all gone yet
(though it is certainly gone in some other places, and sure looks like it
is coming with the global warming disaster on the way).
Could be that the general lack of all sorts of damaging human impacts on
these reefs also has contributed to their amazing rebound.
Notice the incredible abundance of sharks. This has previously been found
on other reefs where there has been almost no reef fishing, such as the NW
Hawaiian Islands (Friedlander and Martini, 2002). This is what a coral
reef without local human impacts looks like, and shows what we have done to
the fish populations on nearly the entire world's reefs, another type of
phase shift, from sharks to smaller fish, a result of fishing. This phase
shift in reef fish is probably the most widespread phase shift on coral
reefs around the world. And it is not even referred to as a phase
shift, probably because most of us have never seen what a pristine reef
fish community looks like.
Cheers, Doug
Lieske,E. and Myers, R. 2001. Coral Reef Fishes. Pocket Guides.
Vroom, P. S. 2011. “Coral dominance”: a dangerous ecosystem misnomer?
*Journal of Marine Biology* 2013: Article ID 164127, 1-8.
Friedlander, A. and De Martini, E. E. 2002. Contrasts in density, size, and
biomass of
reef fishes between the northwestern and main Hawaiian
Islands: effects of
fishing down apex predators. *Marine Ecology Progress Series*
230, 253–264.
coralline algae flypaper
Morse, A., Iwao,, K., Baba, M., Shimoike, K., Hayashibara, T., and Omori,
M. 1996. An
ancient chemosensory mechanism brings new life to coral reefs.
*Biological*
* Bulletin* 191: 149-154.
Morse, D. E., Morse, A. N. C., Raimondi, P. T., and Hooker, N. 1994.
Morphogen-based
chemical flypaper for *Agaricia* *humilis* corallarvae*.
Biological Bulletin* 186:
172-181.
Gómez-Lemos, L. A., Doropoulos, C., Bayraktarov, E. and Diaz-Pulido, G.
2018.
Coralline algal metabolites induce settlement and mediate the
inductive effect of
epiphytic microbes on coral larvae. *Scientific Reports*, 8, 1–11.,
L. A., Doropoulos, C., Bayraktarov, E. and Diaz-Pulido, G. 2018.
Coralline algal metabolites induce settlement and mediate the
inductive effect of
epiphytic microbes on coral larvae. *Scientific Reports*, 8, 1–11.
On Thu, Nov 3, 2022 at 9:40 AM Austin Bowden-Kerby <abowdenkerby at gmail.com>
wrote:
> More on the Southern Line Islands, it looks like they are going really
> big with this on National Geographic. This is the promotional clip
> https://youtu.be/okaECR2_DzI
>
> Very impressive! The fish do look to be quite abundant, but of a
> golden yellow species I am not familiar with. They certainly are
> doing well on a Montipora dominated reef!
> I can certainly see how the beauty and fish abundance would blind
> anyone to even remotely considering that this amazing reef represents
> a degraded coral population and an alternate steady-state condition.
>
> After looking at the footage from 2009, I see that the Acropora
> population was already very low or perhaps absent. Could this reef
> already have experienced a shift in species, due to the 1987 mass
> bleaching event, which lasted for 4-5 months? The answer to that
> question would be found on the beaches, and finding out what species
> dominate the beach rubble, as that would show the past reef builders.
> This is how we know that tabulate Acropora once dominated Kiritimati
> Atoll in the Northern Line Islands, as the beaches are absolutely
> covered in it, however the species is now locally extinct since the
> 2015-16 bleaching event. We keep searching.
>
> Regards,
>
> Austin
>
>
> Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
> Corals for Conservation
> P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
>
> https://www.corals4conservation.org
> 22 minute summary of climate change adaptation strategies
> https://youtu.be/arkeSGXfKMk
> TEDx talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PRLJ8zDm0U
>
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 4, 2022 at 7:54 AM Austin Bowden-Kerby
> <abowdenkerby at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Yes, Alina,
> >
> > Fish and the entire myriad of invertebrate species that associate with
> > the original climax community have been neglected.
> > Using coral cover alone to measure coral reef health is like using
> > vegetation cover to measure forest health, where grass is equal to
> > shrubs and trees! As long as it is not barren rock or rubble, it
> > passes as recovered!
> >
> > Tabulate Montipora just does not provide the same habitat- yes, the
> > plates do have big spaces between them, but there are no fine branch
> > spaces. If digitate and branching Acropora and Pocillopora die out,
> > even branching porites is better for the planktivorous and juvenile
> > fish than are tabulate coral species. This is observational, we are
> > now looking more into it. Of course the coral dwelling crabs and
> > shrimp are quite species specific as well.
> >
> > Enjoy the fall weather! I miss the beauty and peace of the Sound,
> > which was our family home for some nine generations. My Great
> > Grandfather was Elijah Hewlett, of Hewlett's Creek. Dr. Anne McCrary
> > UNCW's invertebrate zoologist, was my Aunt. Landfall on Wrightsville
> > Sound, which sold for over a billion dollars a few decades back, was
> > the old Bowden Plantation, which my second great grandfather "gave
> > away" before he died in 1898, related to the Wilmington
> > "Insurrection", and the fact that his grandmother was African.
> >
> > And here we are on the verge of planetary collapse and massive sea
> > level rise, threatening to erase the coral reefs and the sounds and
> > shores we grew up on within the next few generations, and all due to
> > human excess, materialism, and a vastly unjust global economic order.
> > Excessive wealth, not poverty, is driving the collapse, and much of
> > that wealth was stolen via massive land theft, genocide, slavery, and
> > colonialism.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Austin
> >
> > Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
> > Corals for Conservation
> > P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
> > 22 minute summary of climate change adaptation strategies
> > https://youtu.be/arkeSGXfKMk
> >
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Nov 4, 2022 at 1:21 AM Alina Szmant <alina at cisme-instruments.com>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi Austin:
> > >
> > > From your post I glean that a missing component of the 'recovery '
> studies you cited is an assessment of the fish communities that depend on
> specific coral species.
> > >
> > > Alina
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Dr. Alina M. Szmant, CEO
> > > CISME Instruments LLC
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > -------- Original message --------
> > > From: Austin Bowden-Kerby via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> > > Date: 11/2/22 8:53 AM (GMT-05:00)
> > > To: Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
> > > Cc: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> > > Subject: Re: [Coral-List] amazing recovery of corals in the Southern
> Line Islands after bleaching mortality
> > >
> > > Thanks Doug,
> > >
> > > Yes, this sounds encouraging- on the surface, and the photos are
> > > beautiful! However if you look more deeply, it is a lot less hopeful.
> > > What this represents is yet another case of near total phase shift in
> the
> > > coral population, and the local extinction of a whole list of
> species. The
> > > actual reality is this: due mass bleaching, the coral population of the
> > > Southern Line Islands has gone from a diverse population dominated by
> > > Pocillopora and Acropora, to one dominated by a single species of
> > > Montipora.
> > >
> > > A similar phase shift has happened in Tarawa, in the Gilbert chain,
> due to
> > > bleaching, with the end state being a single species: Porites rus
> (Cannon
> > > et al, 2021). In Kiritimati Atoll, the mass bleaching resulted in the
> > > local extinction of many Acropora species and a big reduction in
> > > Pocillopora, leaving behind only remnants of massive Porites and
> massive
> > > Pavona, (Bowden-Kerby et al, 2021). In Moorea, the phase shift has
> gone
> > > from Acropora dominated to Pocillopora dominated (Edmunds, 2018;
> Carlot et
> > > al, 2020), related to bleaching and COTS predation. This phase shift
> has
> > > been well documented for the Red sea as well (Riegl et al, 2013), with
> a
> > > shift away from Acropora towards Pocillopora and Porites, attributed
> to a
> > > combination of mass bleaching and COTS predation.
> > >
> > > These phase shifts transform the habitat characteristics of the reef,
> away
> > > from what the original species. The resulting reefs provide poor
> habitat
> > > for juvenile fish and plankton-feeding fish like Chromis, which require
> > > branching coral species. These phase shifts represent weedy and
> > > long-lasting coral species, which can dominate the settlement surfaces
> and
> > > prevent larval based recovery of the reef back to its original coral
> > > population. Few of these authors seem to understand this, and so they
> > > celebrate and use the word "recovery" in their titles. However, these
> > > phase shifts represent degraded alternate steady-state conditions.
> > > Unfortunately GCRMN will support these authors, as it only looks at
> coral
> > > cover, not genera, and so it will not pick up or highlight these phase
> > > shifts and species extinctions either.
> > >
> > > I have two recommendations related to this information:
> > > 1. GCRMN needs to be updated to include coral genera! Seriously- how
> can
> > > GCRMN be missing so much of the plot?
> > > 2. The authors of these sorts of "recovery" studies need to present
> phase
> > > shifts with less glee and celebration. A more detached and honest view
> will
> > > present the tragedy that has happened. Yes, the alternative state
> > > sometimes is rather glorious and beautiful, appearing to be an
> improvement
> > > over barren rock, but the fact is that these phase shifts represent
> local
> > > extinction events for coral species essential to ecosystem function,
> > > fisheries, and coral reef geology. And these phase shifts might also
> > > prevent the return to the original populations, cementing in the
> extinction
> > > event.
> > >
> > > We can not allow increasing coral cover to trick us into thinking that
> an
> > > actual recovery has happened.
> > > If we do, we risk being seduced by the enemy and missing the evil plot
> that
> > > climate change is weaving, tricking us into inaction!
> > >
> > > I think that there is enough evidence to come to the conclusion that
> coral
> > > reefs are dying out as a series of phase shifts. Only this recognition
> > > will help us refrain from celebrating the shift, and to stop labeling
> it
> > > recovery.
> > > Only by understanding these basic processes occurring on coral reefs
> under
> > > increasing stress, can we then begin saving the reefs.
> > >
> > > What happens when the next mass bleaching event or perhaps predators or
> > > disease kills off much of the Montipora of the Southern Line Islands?
> Will
> > > this unstick the alternative steady state and allow recovery? Not
> unless
> > > there is a source of coral larvae from the original, now missing coral
> > > species. How does a high coral cover single-species dominated reef get
> > > restored to its original highly diverse state? On Kiritimati, after
> the
> > > mass coral die-off in 2015-16, and while coral cover was still under
> 5% for
> > > the two remaining massive species, we turned our focus to finding the
> few
> > > remnant survivors of formerly dominant Acropora and Pocillopora coral
> > > species, and growing them within a recovery nursery. The focus was on
> > > restoring sexual process to the corals, by collecting the widely
> spaced and
> > > ecologically extinct survivors, growing them, and getting them back
> > > together. While several formerly abundant Acropora coral species
> could not
> > > be found, we have succeeded in restoring reproduction to patches of
> seven
> > > Acropora and two Pocillopora species.
> > >
> > > A 22 minute presentation on our 'Reefs of Hope' strategies is here
> > > https://youtu.be/arkeSGXfKMk And to the list: we welcome
> self-funded
> > > research partners and graduate students in our sites.
> > >
> > > Vinaka, and kind regards to all,
> > >
> > > Austin
> > >
> > > Cannon SE, Aram E, Beiateuea T, Kiareti A, Peter M, Donner SD (2021)
> Coral
> > > reefs in the Gilbert Islands of Kiribati: Resistance, resilience, and
> > > recovery after more than a decade of multiple stressors. PLoS ONE
> 16(8):
> > > e0255304. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255304
> > >
> > > Edmunds, P.J. Implications of high rates of sexual recruitment in
> driving
> > > rapid reef recovery in Mo’orea, French Polynesia. 2018. Nature:
> Scientific
> > > Reports. 8:16615 doi:10.1038/s41598-018-34686-z
> > >
> > >
> > > Carlot J., Rove`re A., Casella E., Harris D., Grellet-Mun C.,
> Chancerelle
> > > Y., Dormy E., Hedouin L., Parravicini V. 2020. Community composition
> > > predicts photogrammetry-based structural complexity on coral reefs.
> Coral
> > > Reefs. doi: 10.1007/s00338-020-01916-8
> > >
> > >
> > > Riegl B., Berumen M., Bruckner A. 2013. Coral population trajectories,
> > > increased disturbance and management intervention: a sensitivity
> analysis.
> > > Ecology and Evolution 3(4): 1050–1064
> > >
> > > doi: 10.1002/ece3.519
> > >
> > >
> > > Bowden-Kerby, A., Romero, L., and Kirata T. 2021. Chapter 17: Line
> Islands
> > > Case Study. In: Active Coral Restoration: Techniques for a changing
> planet,
> > > David Vaughn, Editor. 610pp.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
> > > Corals for Conservation
> > > P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
> > >
> > >
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
> > > <
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
> >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Wed, Nov 2, 2022 at 6:01 AM Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <
> > > coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Once devastated, these Pacific reefs have seen an amazing rebirth
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/once-devastated-these-pacific-reefs-have-seen-an-amazing-rebirth-feature
> > > >
> > > > Cheers, Doug
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Douglas Fenner
> > > > Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
> > > > NOAA Fisheries Service
> > > > Pacific Islands Regional Office
> > > > Honolulu
> > > > and:
> > > > Coral Reef Consulting
> > > > PO Box 997390
> > > > Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799-6298 USA
> > > >
> > > > Switching to renewable energy could save trillions-up to $12
> TRILLION by
> > > > 2050.
> > > > https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62892013
> > > >
> > > > 1 in 6 deaths worldwide can be attributed to pollution, new review
> shows
> > > >
> > > >
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/1-in-6-deaths-worldwide-can-be-attributed-to-pollution-new-review-shows/ar-AAXozQh
> > > >
> > > > UN: World on fast track to disaster, but we can avert it
> > > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xBVD8r0aHQ
> > > > _______________________________________________
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> > > >
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