2 research outputs found
Sclerochronological characteristics of Orbicella faveolata in Cayo Arenas, a remote coral reef from the Gulf of Mexico
Spatial and temporal patterns in the coral assemblage at Clipperton Atoll: a sentinel reef in the Eastern Tropical Pacific
Este artÃculo contiene 11 páginas, 5 figuras, 1 tabla.Isolated coral reef habitats are unique systems
to study the natural dynamics of coral traits and their natural
acclimatization, adaptation, and recovery from globalscale
stressors such as thermally induced bleaching events.
This study evaluates the spatial and temporal changes in
coral community attributes (diversity, live cover, and
coral assemblage structure) over 14 years (2005–2019) at
Clipperton, an extremely remote Eastern Tropical Pacific
(ETP) atoll. The atoll exhibited overall high coral cover
(~ 50–60%) dominated by massive species (Porites spp.), yet
we observed large variation (44–56%) in coral community
attributes among survey years (2005, 2016, 2019) with depth explaining most of the variation. Live coral cover increased
in 2019 after a severe thermal stress event (El Niño, 2015–
2016) and many tropical cyclones, which also caused a shift
in assemblage structure from branching Pocillopora to massive
Porites in the shallower reef zones, resulting in a less
well-defined depth gradient. These changes in coral assemblage
structure may have long-term effects on the configuration
of the physical reef framework of the well-conserved
coral reef ecosystems at Clipperton and consequently may
alter the ecological functionality of one of the most important
biogeographic stepping stones in the central Pacific and
ETP regions.The present work was supported by Consejo
Nacional de Ciencia y TecnologÃa (CONACYT) postdoctoral fellowship
(CVU 410380) to JJATL. We thank the government of France, The
Embassy of France in Mexico, Ministère Des Outre-Mer, the Mexican
government, Centro de Investigación de la Isla Observatorio del
Medio Ambiente (CRIOBE USR3278 EPHE-CNRS-UPVD), Instituto
Nacional de Pesca y Acuacultura (INAPESCA), and the oceanographic
research vessel Jorge Carranza Fraser from INAPESCA and also thank
the Haut Commissariat de la République en Polynésie française for
permission to perform this research at Clipperton Atoll (CITES permit
no. FR1998700218-E).Peer reviewe