Recurrent Disturbances and the Degradation of Hard Coral Communities in Taiwan
Recurrent disturbances can have a critical effect on the structure and function of coral reef communities. In this study, long-term changes were examined in the hard coral community at Wanlitung, in southern Taiwan, between 1985 and 2010. In this 26 year interval, the reef has experienced repeated d...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science
2012
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3431363/ |
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pubmed-3431363 |
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pubmed-34313632012-09-05 Recurrent Disturbances and the Degradation of Hard Coral Communities in Taiwan Kuo, Chao-Yang Yuen, Yeong Shyan Meng, Pei-Jie Ho, Ping-Ho Wang, Jih-Terng Liu, Pi-Jen Chang, Yang-Chi Dai, Chang-Feng Fan, Tung-Yung Lin, Hsing-Juh Baird, Andrew Hamilton Chen, Chaolun Allen Research Article Recurrent disturbances can have a critical effect on the structure and function of coral reef communities. In this study, long-term changes were examined in the hard coral community at Wanlitung, in southern Taiwan, between 1985 and 2010. In this 26 year interval, the reef has experienced repeated disturbances that include six typhoons and two coral-bleaching events. The frequency of disturbance has meant that species susceptible to disturbance, such as those in the genus Acropora and Montipora have almost disappeared from the reef. Indeed, almost all hard coral species have declined in abundance, with the result that total hard coral cover in 2010 (17.7%) was less than half what it was in 1985 (47.5%). In addition, macro-algal cover has increased from 11.3% in 2003 to 28.5% in 2010. The frequency of disturbance combined with possible chronic influence of a growing human population mean that a diverse reef assemblage is unlikely to persist on this reef into the future. Public Library of Science 2012-08-30 /pmc/articles/PMC3431363/ /pubmed/22952967 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044364 Text en © 2012 Kuo et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Kuo, Chao-Yang Yuen, Yeong Shyan Meng, Pei-Jie Ho, Ping-Ho Wang, Jih-Terng Liu, Pi-Jen Chang, Yang-Chi Dai, Chang-Feng Fan, Tung-Yung Lin, Hsing-Juh Baird, Andrew Hamilton Chen, Chaolun Allen |
| spellingShingle |
Kuo, Chao-Yang Yuen, Yeong Shyan Meng, Pei-Jie Ho, Ping-Ho Wang, Jih-Terng Liu, Pi-Jen Chang, Yang-Chi Dai, Chang-Feng Fan, Tung-Yung Lin, Hsing-Juh Baird, Andrew Hamilton Chen, Chaolun Allen Recurrent Disturbances and the Degradation of Hard Coral Communities in Taiwan |
| author_facet |
Kuo, Chao-Yang Yuen, Yeong Shyan Meng, Pei-Jie Ho, Ping-Ho Wang, Jih-Terng Liu, Pi-Jen Chang, Yang-Chi Dai, Chang-Feng Fan, Tung-Yung Lin, Hsing-Juh Baird, Andrew Hamilton Chen, Chaolun Allen |
| author_sort |
Kuo, Chao-Yang |
| title |
Recurrent Disturbances and the Degradation of Hard Coral Communities in Taiwan |
| title_short |
Recurrent Disturbances and the Degradation of Hard Coral Communities in Taiwan |
| title_full |
Recurrent Disturbances and the Degradation of Hard Coral Communities in Taiwan |
| title_fullStr |
Recurrent Disturbances and the Degradation of Hard Coral Communities in Taiwan |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Recurrent Disturbances and the Degradation of Hard Coral Communities in Taiwan |
| title_sort |
recurrent disturbances and the degradation of hard coral communities in taiwan |
| description |
Recurrent disturbances can have a critical effect on the structure and function of coral reef communities. In this study, long-term changes were examined in the hard coral community at Wanlitung, in southern Taiwan, between 1985 and 2010. In this 26 year interval, the reef has experienced repeated disturbances that include six typhoons and two coral-bleaching events. The frequency of disturbance has meant that species susceptible to disturbance, such as those in the genus Acropora and Montipora have almost disappeared from the reef. Indeed, almost all hard coral species have declined in abundance, with the result that total hard coral cover in 2010 (17.7%) was less than half what it was in 1985 (47.5%). In addition, macro-algal cover has increased from 11.3% in 2003 to 28.5% in 2010. The frequency of disturbance combined with possible chronic influence of a growing human population mean that a diverse reef assemblage is unlikely to persist on this reef into the future. |
| publisher |
Public Library of Science |
| publishDate |
2012 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3431363/ |
| _version_ |
1611553437214834688 |