Publication Search Results

ID: 158627
Type: article
Authors: Baird, Andrew H.; Guest, James R.; Edwards, Alasdair J.; Bauman, Andrew G.; Bouwmeester, Jessica; Mera, Hanaka; Abrego, David; Alvarez-Noriega, Mariana; Babcock, Russel C.; Barbosa, Miguel B.; Bonito, Victor; Burt, John; Cabaitan, Patrick C.; Chang, Ching-Fong; Chavanich, Suchana; Chen, Chaolun A.; Chen, Chieh-Jhen; Chen, Wei-Jen; Chung, Fung-Chen; Connolly, Sean R.; Cumbo, Vivian R.; Dornelas, Maria; Doropoulos, Christopher; Eyal, Gal; Eyal-Shaham, Lee; Fadli, Nur; Figueiredo, Joana; Flot, Jean-Francois; Gan, Sze-Hoon; Gomez, Elizabeth; Graham, Erin M.; Grinblat, Mila; Gutierrez-Isaza, Nataly; Harii, Saki; Harrison, Peter L.; Hatta, Masayuki; Ho, Nina Ann Jin; Hoarau, Gaetan; Hoogenboom, Mia; Howells, Emily J.; Iguchi, Akira; Isomura, Naoko; Jamodiong, Emmeline A.; Jandang, Suppakarn; Keyse, Jude; Kitanobo, Seiya; Kongjandtre, Narinratana; Kuo, Chao-Yang; Ligson, Charlon; Lin, Che-Hung; Low, Jeffrey; Loya, Yossi; Maboloc, Elizaldy A.; Madin, Joshua S.; Mezaki, Takuma; Min, Choo; Morita, Masaya; Moya, Aurelie; Neo, Su-Hwei; Nitschke, Matthew R.; Nojima, Satoshi; Nozawa, Yoko; Piromvaragorn, Srisakul; Plathong, Sakanan; Puill-Stephan, Eneour; Quigley, Kate; Ramirez-Portilla, Catalina; Ricardo, Gerard; Sakai, Kazuhiko; Sampayo, Eugenia; Shlesinger, Tom; Sikim, Leony; Simpson, Chris; Sims, Carrie A.; Sinniger, Frederic; Spiji, Davies A.; Tabalanza, Tracy; Tan, Chung-Hong; Terraneo, Tullia I.; Torda, Gergely; True, James; Tun, Karenne; Vicentuan, Kareen; Viyakarn, Voranop; Waheed, Zarinah; Ward, Selina; Willis, Bette; Woods, Rachael M.; Woolsey, Erika S.; Yamamoto, Hiromi H.; Yusuf, Syafyudin
Abstract: The discovery of multi-species synchronous spawning of scleractinian corals on the Great Barrier Reef in the 1980s stimulated an extraordinary effort to document spawning times in other parts of the globe. Unfortunately, most of these data remain unpublished which limits our understanding of regional and global reproductive patterns. The Coral Spawning Database (CSD) collates much of these disparate data into a single place. The CSD includes 6178 observations (3085 of which were unpublished) of the time or day of spawning for over 300 scleractinian species in 61 genera from 101 sites in the Indo-Pacific. The goal of the CSD is to provide open access to coral spawning data to accelerate our understanding of coral reproductive biology and to provide a baseline against which to evaluate any future changes in reproductive phenology.

ID: 158768
Type: article
Authors: Dietzel, Andreas; Bode, Michael; Connolly, Sean R.; Hughes, Terry P.
Abstract: Approximately half a trillion reef-building corals live across the Pacific Ocean, based on estimates of the population sizes of more than 300 species. Knowledge of a species' abundance is critically important for assessing its risk of extinction, but for the vast majority of wild animal and plant species such data are scarce at biogeographic scales. Here, we estimate the total number of reef-building corals and the population sizes of more than 300 individual species on reefs spanning the Pacific Ocean biodiversity gradient, from Indonesia to French Polynesia. Our analysis suggests that approximately half a trillion corals (0.3 x 10(12)-0.8 x 10(12)) inhabit these coral reefs, similar to the number of trees in the Amazon. Two-thirds of the examined species have population sizes exceeding 100 million colonies, and one-fifth of the species even have population sizes greater than 1 billion colonies. Our findings suggest that, while local depletions pose imminent threats that can have ecologically devastating impacts to coral reefs, the global extinction risk of most coral species is lower than previously estimated.

ID: 157273
Type: article
Authors: Dietzel, Andreas; Bode, Michael; Connolly, Sean R.; Hughes, Terry P.
Abstract: The age or size structure of a population has a marked influence on its demography and reproductive capacity. While declines in coral cover are well documented, concomitant shifts in the size-frequency distribution of coral colonies are rarely measured at large spatial scales. Here, we document major shifts in the colony size structure of coral populations along the 2300 km length of the Great Barrier Reef relative to historical baselines (1995/1996). Coral colony abundances on reef crests and slopes have declined sharply across all colony size classes and in all coral taxa compared to historical baselines. Declines were particularly pronounced in the northern and central regions of the Great Barrier Reef, following mass coral bleaching in 2016 and 2017. The relative abundances of large colonies remained relatively stable, but this apparent stability masks steep declines in absolute abundance. The potential for recovery of older fecund corals is uncertain given the increasing frequency and intensity of disturbance events. The systematic decline in smaller colonies across regions, habitats and taxa, suggests that a decline in recruitment has further eroded the recovery potential and resilience of coral populations.

ID: 151653
Type: article
Authors: Crandall, Eric D.; Riginos, Cynthia; Bird, Chris E.; Liggins, Libby; Treml, Eric; Beger, Maria; Barber, Paul H.; Connolly, Sean R.; Cowman, Peter F.; DiBattista, Joseph D.; Eble, Jeff A.; Magnuson, Sharon F.; Horne, John B.; Kochzius, Marc; Lessios, Harilaos A.; Liu, Shang Yin Vanson; Ludt, William B.; Madduppa, Hawis; Pandolfi, John M.; Toonen, Robert J.; Gaither, Michelle R.; Diversity Indopacific Network
Abstract: Aim To test hypothesized biogeographic partitions of the tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean with phylogeographic data from 56 taxa, and to evaluate the strength and nature of barriers emerging from this test. Location The Indo-Pacific Ocean. Time period Pliocene through the Holocene. Major taxa studied Fifty-six marine species. Methods We tested eight biogeographic hypotheses for partitioning of the Indo-Pacific using a novel modification to analysis of molecular variance. Putative barriers to gene flow emerging from this analysis were evaluated for pairwise phi(ST), and these phi(ST) distributions were compared to distributions from randomized datasets and simple coalescent simulations of vicariance arising from the Last Glacial Maximum. We then weighed the relative contribution of distance versus environmental or geographic barriers to pairwise phi(ST) with a distance-based redundancy analysis (dbRDA). Results We observed a diversity of outcomes, although the majority of species fit a few broad biogeographic regions. Repeated coalescent simulation of a simple vicariance model yielded a wide distribution of pairwise phi(ST) that was very similar to empirical distributions observed across five putative barriers to gene flow. Three of these barriers had median phi(ST) that were significantly larger than random expectation. Only 21 of 52 species analysed with dbRDA rejected the null model. Among these, 15 had overwater distance as a significant predictor of pairwise phi(ST), while 11 were significant for geographic or environmental barriers other than distance. Main conclusions Although there is support for three previously described barriers, phylogeographic discordance in the Indo-Pacific Ocean indicates incongruity between processes shaping the distributions of diversity at the species and population levels. Among the many possible causes of this incongruity, genetic drift provides the most compelling explanation: given massive effective population sizes of Indo-Pacific species, even hard vicariance for tens of thousands of years can yield phi(ST )values that range from 0 to nearly 0.5.

ID: 140711
Type: article
Authors: Casey, Jordan M.; Baird, Andrew H.; Brandl, Simon J.; Hoogenboom, Mia O.; Rizzari, Justin R.; Frisch, Ashley J.; Mirbach, Christopher E.; Connolly, Sean R.
Abstract: Removal of predators is often hypothesized to alter community structure through trophic cascades. However, despite recent advances in our understanding of trophic cascades, evidence is often circumstantial on coral reefs because fishing pressure frequently co-varies with other anthropogenic effects, such as fishing for herbivorous fishes and changes in water quality due to pollution. Australia’s outer Great Barrier Reef (GBR) has experienced fishing-induced declines of apex predators and mesopredators, but pollution and targeting of herbivorous fishes are minimal. Here, we quantify fish and benthic assemblages across a fishing-induced predator density gradient on the outer GBR, including apex predators and mesopredators to herbivores and benthic assemblages, to test for evidence of trophic cascades and alternative hypotheses to trophic cascade theory. Using structural equation models, we found no cascading effects from apex predators to lower trophic levels: a loss of apex predators did not lead to higher levels of mesopredators, and this did not suppress mobile herbivores and drive algal proliferation. Likewise, we found no effects of mesopredators on lower trophic levels: a decline of mesopredators was not associated with higher abundances of algae-farming damselfishes and algae-dominated reefs. These findings indicate that top-down forces on coral reefs are weak, at least on the outer GBR. We conclude that predator-mediated trophic cascades are probably the exception rather than the rule in complex ecosystems such as the outer GBR.

ID: 139417
Type: article
Authors: Madin, Joshua S.; Anderson, Kristen D.; Andreasen, Magnus Heide; Bridge, Tom C. L.; Cairns, Stephen D.; Connolly, Sean R.; Darling, Emily S.; Diaz, Marcela; Falster, Daniel S.; Franklin, Erik C.; Gates, Ruth D.; Hoogenboom, Mia O.; Huang, Danwei; Keith, Sally A.; Kosnik, Matthew A.; Kuo, Chao-Yang; Lough, Janice M.; Lovelock, Catherine E.; Luiz, Osmar; Martinelli, Julieta; Mizerek, Toni; Pandolfi, John M.; Pochon, Xavier; Pratchett, Morgan S.; Putnam, Hollie M.; Roberts, T. E.; Stat, Michael; Wallace, Carden C.; Widman, Elizabeth; Baird, Andrew H.
Abstract: Trait-based approaches advance ecological and evolutionary research because traits provide a strong link to an organism's function and fitness. Trait-based research might lead to a deeper understanding of the functions of, and services provided by, ecosystems, thereby improving management, which is vital in the current era of rapid environmental change. Coral reef scientists have long collected trait data for corals; however, these are difficult to access and often under-utilized in addressing large-scale questions. We present the Coral Trait Database initiative that aims to bring together physiological, morphological, ecological, phylogenetic and biogeographic trait information into a single repository. The database houses species- and individual-level data from published field and experimental studies alongside contextual data that provide important framing for analyses. In this data descriptor, we release data for 56 traits for 1547 species, and present a collaborative platform on which other trait data are being actively federated. Our overall goal is for the Coral Trait Database to become an open-source, community-led data clearinghouse that accelerates coral reef research.

ID: 123274
Type: article
Authors: Connolly, Sean R.; MacNeil, M. Aaron; Caley, M. Julian; Knowlton, Nancy; Cripps, Ed; Hisano, Mizue; Thibaut, Loic M.; Bhattacharya, Bhaskar D.; Benedetti-Cecchi, Lisandro; Brainard, Russell E.; Brandt, Angelika; Bulleri, Fabio; Ellingsen, Kari E.; Kaiser, Stefanie; Kroncke, Ingrid; Linse, Katrin; Maggi, Elena; O'Hara, Timothy D.; Plaisance, Laetitia; Poore, Gary C. B.; Sarkar, Santosh K.; Satpathy, Kamala K.; Schuckel, Ulrike; Williams, Alan; Wilson, Robin S.

ID: 79812
Type: article
Authors: Gotelli, Nicholas J.; Anderson, Marti J.; Arita, Hector T.; Chao, Anne; Colwell, Robert K.; Connolly, Sean R.; Currie, David J.; Dunn, Robert R.; Graves, Gary R.; Green, Jessica L.; Grytnes, John-Arvid; Jiang, Yi-Huei; Jetz, Walter; Lyons, Sara K.; McCain, Christy M.; Magurran, Anne E.; Rahbek, Carsten; Rangel, Thiago F. L. V. B.; Soberón, Jorge; Webb, Campbell O.; Willig, Michael R.
Abstract: Understanding the causes of spatial variation in species richness is a major research focus of biogeography and macroecology. Gridded environmental data and species richness maps have been used in increasingly sophisticated curve-fitting analyses, but these methods have not brought us much closer to a mechanistic understanding of the patterns. During the past two decades, macroecologists have successfully addressed technical problems posed by spatial autocorrelation, intercorrelation of predictor variables and non-linearity. However, curve-fitting approaches are problematic because most theoretical models in macroecology do not make quantitative predictions, and they do not incorporate interactions among multiple forces. As an alternative, we propose a mechanistic modelling approach. We describe computer simulation models of the stochastic origin, spread, and extinction of species' geographical ranges in an environmentally heterogeneous, gridded domain and describe progress to date regarding their implementation. The output from such a general simulation model (GSM) would, at a minimum, consist of the simulated distribution of species ranges on a map, yielding the predicted number of species in each grid cell of the domain. In contrast to curve-fitting analysis, simulation modelling explicitly incorporates the processes believed to be affecting the geographical ranges of species and generates a number of quantitative predictions that can be compared to empirical patterns. We describe three of the 'control knobs' for a GSM that specify simple rules for dispersal, evolutionary origins and environmental gradients. Binary combinations of different knob settings correspond to eight distinct simulation models, five of which are already represented in the literature of macroecology. The output from such a GSM will include the predicted species richness per grid cell, the range size frequency distribution, the simulated phylogeny and simulated geographical ranges of the component species, all of which can be compared to empirical patterns. Challenges to the development of the GSM include the measurement of goodness of fit (GOF) between observed data and model predictions, as well as the estimation, optimization and interpretation of the model parameters. The simulation approach offers new insights into the origin and maintenance of species richness patterns, and may provide a common framework for investigating the effects of contemporary climate, evolutionary history and geometric constraints on global biodiversity gradients. With further development, the GSM has the potential to provide a conceptual bridge between macroecology and historical biogeography.

ID: 110854
Type: article
Authors: Robbins, William D.; Hisano, Mizue; Connolly, Sean R.; Choat, J. H.
Abstract: Marine ecosystems are suffering severe depletion of apex predators worldwide [1–4]; shark declines are principally due to conservative life-histories and fisheries overexploitation [5–8]. On coral reefs, sharks are strongly interacting apex predators and play a key role in maintaining healthy reef ecosystems [9– 11]. Despite increasing fishing pressure, reef shark catches are rarely subject to specific limits, with management approaches typically depending upon notake marine reserves to maintain populations [12–14]. Here, we reveal that this approach is failing by documenting an ongoing collapse in two of the most abundant reef shark species on the Great Barrier Reef (Australia). We find an order of magnitude fewer sharks on fished reefs compared to no-entry management zones that encompass only1%of reefs. No-take zones, which are more difficult to enforce than no-entry zones, offer almost no protection for shark populations. Population viability models of whitetip and gray reef sharks project ongoing steep declines in abundance of 7% and 17% per annum, respectively. These findings indicate that current management of no-take areas is inadequate for protecting reef sharks, even in one of the world’s most-well-managed reef ecosystems. Further steps are urgently required for protecting this critical functional group from ecological extinction.
Maria Luz This paper was sponsored in part by an SI/Queensland Government collaborative grant to myself and Howard Choat, one of the authors. So it’s a STRI pub… Ross

ID: 51518
Type: article
Authors: Aronson, Richard B.; Bruno, John F.; Precht, William F.; Glynn, Peter William; Harvell, C. Drew; Kaufman, Les; Rogers, Caroline S.; Shinn, Eugene A.; Valentine, John F.; Pandolfi, John M.; Bradbury, Roger H.; Sala, Enric; Hughes, Terence P.; Bjorndal, Karen A.; Cooke, Richard G.; McArdle, Deborah; Mcclenachan, Loren; Newman, Marah J. H.; Paredes, Gustavo; Warner, Robert R.; Jackson, Jeremy B. C.; Baird, A. H.; Bellwood, D. R.; Connolly, S. R.; Folke, C.; Grosberg, R.; Hoegh-Guldberg, O.; Kleypas, J.; Lough, J. M.; Marshall, P.; Nystrom, M.; Palumbi, Stephen R.; Rosen, B.; Roughgarden, J.

ID: 51517
Type: article
Authors: Hugues, Ted P.; Baird, H.; Bellwood, D. R.; Card, M.; Connolly, S. R.; Folke, C.; Grosberg, R.; Hoegh-Guldberg, O.; Jackson, Jeremy B. C.; Kleypas, J.; Lough, J. M.; Marshall, P.; Nystro, M.; Palumbi, Stephen R.; Pandolfi, John M.; Rosen, B.; Roughgarden, J.