Details:

Journal Title:
Frontiers in Marine Science
Personal Author:
Borgstein, Natascha ; Beltrán, Diana M. ; Prada, Carlos
Borgstein, Natascha ; Beltrán, Diana M. ; Prada, Carlos Less -
NOAA Program & Office:
CoRIS (Coral Reef Information System)
Description:
Growth rates often measured as linear extension rates can serve as a proxy for organismal performance across environments, yet few estimates of these growth rates exist, and fewer are reported from multi-year monitoring. We studied the effect of species, depth, exposure, and life stages on the linear extension rates of common octocorals inhabiting Caribbean reefs. We monitored 16 species from the families Briareidae, Gorgoniidae, and Plexauridae, including eight genera: Antillogorgia, Briareum, Eunicea, Gorgonia, Muricea, Muriceopsis, Plexaura, and Plexaurella. We surveyed over 2,000 colonies across eight reefs in Southwest Puerto Rico from 2003 to 2006. Our surveys include reefs along a gradient of water motion from inside protected reefs to offshore unprotected reefs and from shallow (5 m) forereefs to deeper environments reaching 25 m. We observed that linear extension rates vary across species and largely follow branch thickness variation and colony architecture, with thin plume-like shapes growing faster. We also found that in 7 out of the 16 species, colonies from shallow habitats with brighter and warmer environments have higher growth rates than colonies in deep, low energy, and darker areas. Importantly, small/juvenile corals of most species (<10 cm) grew faster than adult colonies. Our data highlight the possibility that, as climate change continues to deteriorate Caribbean reefs by decimating scleractinian corals and opening new habitat for less vulnerable species, plume-like corals with fast growth rates such as species within the genus Antillogorgia may become the most abundant benthic cnidarians on Caribbean shallow forereefs.
Keywords:
[+]
Aquatic Science Global And Planetary Change Ocean Engineering Oceanography Water Science And Technology
Source:
Frontiers in Marine Science, 7
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00483
ISSN:
2296-7745
Format:
PDF
Publisher:
Frontiers Media SA
Document Type:
Journal Article
License:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Rights Information:
CC BY
Compliance:
Library
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:8c5efdc9c59b6617176fbc7f8f71af80b1b6c346515ef29778a509b09da0ffae
Download URL:
https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/58020/noaa_58020_DS1.pdf
File Type:

Supporting Files

• Machine readable version (XML)

  xml

More +