Quantifying Climatological Ranges and Anomalies for Pacific Coral Reef Ecosystems

Coral reef ecosystems are exposed to a range of environmental forcings that vary on daily to decadal time scales and across spatial scales spanning from reefs to archipelagos. Environmental variability is a major determinant of reef ecosystem structure and function, including coral reef extent and g...

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Main Authors:	Gove, Jamison M., Williams, Gareth J., McManus, Margaret A., Heron, Scott F., Sandin, Stuart A., Vetter, Oliver J., Foley, David G.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2013
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3630142/

id	pubmed-3630142
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-36301422013-05-01 Quantifying Climatological Ranges and Anomalies for Pacific Coral Reef Ecosystems Gove, Jamison M. Williams, Gareth J. McManus, Margaret A. Heron, Scott F. Sandin, Stuart A. Vetter, Oliver J. Foley, David G. Research Article Coral reef ecosystems are exposed to a range of environmental forcings that vary on daily to decadal time scales and across spatial scales spanning from reefs to archipelagos. Environmental variability is a major determinant of reef ecosystem structure and function, including coral reef extent and growth rates, and the abundance, diversity, and morphology of reef organisms. Proper characterization of environmental forcings on coral reef ecosystems is critical if we are to understand the dynamics and implications of abiotic–biotic interactions on reef ecosystems. This study combines high-resolution bathymetric information with remotely sensed sea surface temperature, chlorophyll-a and irradiance data, and modeled wave data to quantify environmental forcings on coral reefs. We present a methodological approach to develop spatially constrained, island- and atoll-scale metrics that quantify climatological range limits and anomalous environmental forcings across U.S. Pacific coral reef ecosystems. Our results indicate considerable spatial heterogeneity in climatological ranges and anomalies across 41 islands and atolls, with emergent spatial patterns specific to each environmental forcing. For example, wave energy was greatest at northern latitudes and generally decreased with latitude. In contrast, chlorophyll-a was greatest at reef ecosystems proximate to the equator and northern-most locations, showing little synchrony with latitude. In addition, we find that the reef ecosystems with the highest chlorophyll-a concentrations; Jarvis, Howland, Baker, Palmyra and Kingman are each uninhabited and are characterized by high hard coral cover and large numbers of predatory fishes. Finally, we find that scaling environmental data to the spatial footprint of individual islands and atolls is more likely to capture local environmental forcings, as chlorophyll-a concentrations decreased at relatively short distances (>7 km) from 85% of our study locations. These metrics will help identify reef ecosystems most exposed to environmental stress as well as systems that may be more resistant or resilient to future climate change. Public Library of Science 2013-04-18 /pmc/articles/PMC3630142/ /pubmed/23637939 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0061974 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain declaration, which stipulates that, once placed in the public domain, this work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose.
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	Gove, Jamison M. Williams, Gareth J. McManus, Margaret A. Heron, Scott F. Sandin, Stuart A. Vetter, Oliver J. Foley, David G.
spellingShingle	Gove, Jamison M. Williams, Gareth J. McManus, Margaret A. Heron, Scott F. Sandin, Stuart A. Vetter, Oliver J. Foley, David G. Quantifying Climatological Ranges and Anomalies for Pacific Coral Reef Ecosystems
author_facet	Gove, Jamison M. Williams, Gareth J. McManus, Margaret A. Heron, Scott F. Sandin, Stuart A. Vetter, Oliver J. Foley, David G.
author_sort	Gove, Jamison M.
title	Quantifying Climatological Ranges and Anomalies for Pacific Coral Reef Ecosystems
title_short	Quantifying Climatological Ranges and Anomalies for Pacific Coral Reef Ecosystems
title_full	Quantifying Climatological Ranges and Anomalies for Pacific Coral Reef Ecosystems
title_fullStr	Quantifying Climatological Ranges and Anomalies for Pacific Coral Reef Ecosystems
title_full_unstemmed	Quantifying Climatological Ranges and Anomalies for Pacific Coral Reef Ecosystems
title_sort	quantifying climatological ranges and anomalies for pacific coral reef ecosystems
description	Coral reef ecosystems are exposed to a range of environmental forcings that vary on daily to decadal time scales and across spatial scales spanning from reefs to archipelagos. Environmental variability is a major determinant of reef ecosystem structure and function, including coral reef extent and growth rates, and the abundance, diversity, and morphology of reef organisms. Proper characterization of environmental forcings on coral reef ecosystems is critical if we are to understand the dynamics and implications of abiotic–biotic interactions on reef ecosystems. This study combines high-resolution bathymetric information with remotely sensed sea surface temperature, chlorophyll-a and irradiance data, and modeled wave data to quantify environmental forcings on coral reefs. We present a methodological approach to develop spatially constrained, island- and atoll-scale metrics that quantify climatological range limits and anomalous environmental forcings across U.S. Pacific coral reef ecosystems. Our results indicate considerable spatial heterogeneity in climatological ranges and anomalies across 41 islands and atolls, with emergent spatial patterns specific to each environmental forcing. For example, wave energy was greatest at northern latitudes and generally decreased with latitude. In contrast, chlorophyll-a was greatest at reef ecosystems proximate to the equator and northern-most locations, showing little synchrony with latitude. In addition, we find that the reef ecosystems with the highest chlorophyll-a concentrations; Jarvis, Howland, Baker, Palmyra and Kingman are each uninhabited and are characterized by high hard coral cover and large numbers of predatory fishes. Finally, we find that scaling environmental data to the spatial footprint of individual islands and atolls is more likely to capture local environmental forcings, as chlorophyll-a concentrations decreased at relatively short distances (>7 km) from 85% of our study locations. These metrics will help identify reef ecosystems most exposed to environmental stress as well as systems that may be more resistant or resilient to future climate change.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2013
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3630142/
_version_	1611971207866875904

Quantifying Climatological Ranges and Anomalies for Pacific Coral Reef Ecosystems

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