Abstract
Coral reefs in the Anthropocene are being subjected to unprecedented levels of stressors, including local disturbances—such as overfishing, habitat destruction, and pollution—and large-scale destruction related to the global impacts of climate change—such as typhoons and coral bleaching. Thus, the future of corals and coral reefs in any given community and coral-Symbiodiniaceae associations over time will depend on their level of resilience, from individual corals to entire ecosystems. Herein we review the environmental settings and long-term ecological research on coral reefs, based on both coral resilience and space, in Kenting National Park (KNP), Hengchun Peninsula, southern Taiwan, wherein fringing reefs have developed along the coast of both capes and a semi-closed bay, known as Nanwan, within the peninsula. These reefs are influenced by a branch of Kuroshio Current, the monsoon-induced South China Sea Surface Current, and a tide-induced upwelling that not only shapes coral communities, but also reduces the seawater temperature and creates fluctuating thermal environments which over time have favoured thermal-resistant corals, particularly those corals close to the thermal effluent of a nuclear power plant in the west Nanwan. Although living coral cover (LCC) has fluctuated through time in concordance with major typhoons and coral bleaching between 1986 and 2019, spatial heterogeneity in LCC recovery has been detected, suggesting that coral reef resilience is variable among subregions in KNP. In addition, corals exposed to progressively warmer and fluctuating thermal environments show not only a dominance of associated, thermally-tolerant Durusdinium spp. but also the ability to shuffle their symbiont communities in response to seasonal variations in seawater temperature without bleaching. We demonstrate that coral reefs in a small geographical range with unique environmental settings and ecological characteristics, such as the KNP reef, may be resilient to bleaching and deserve novel conservation efforts. Thus, this review calls for conservation efforts that use resilience-based management programs to reduce local stresses and meet the challenge of climate change.
Highlights
Similar global-scale coral bleaching events (GCBE) that result in high coral mortality, the rapid decline of reef structures, and unprecedented environmental impacts have been reported in the Indian [11,12], Pacific [13,14,15], and Atlantic Oceans [16,17]
The “mission-impossible” goal is to drastically reduce CO2 emissions to net zero and maintain an only 1.5 °C temperature increase; this might lead to 10% of current reefs surviving after 2050. Some global efforts, such as the 50 Reefs Initiative, have used Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) to identify coral reef locations that represent imperative conservation investments and to ensure their survival; the goal of these efforts is to prepare these areas for repopulation once the zero and maintain an only 1.5 ◦C temperature increase; this might lead to 10% of current reefs surviving after 2050
Some global efforts, such as the 50 Reefs Initiative, have used Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) to identify coral reef locations that represent imperative conservation investments and to ensure their survival; the goal of these efforts is to prepare these areas for repopulation once the climate has been stabilized [129]
Summary
Coral reefs are one of the world’s most diverse and productive marine ecosystems, providing essential goods and services for millions of people. In addition to driving more intensive mass coral bleaching, warming oceans will enhance the destructive potential of tropical storms, including typhoons in the West Pacific, hurricanes in the Caribbean, and cyclones in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, by either increasing their frequencies [23] or intensities [24], other studies suggest that the global frequency of cyclones might remain stable or even decrease by up to 40% under greenhouse conditions by the end of this century [25,26,27] Despite these projections, future impacts remain debatable. The diversity and biomass of fish and other fauna that require corals for shelter or food will be dramatically reduced [29]
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