Hydro-morphological characteristics provide insights into coral reef ecosystem services and disservices

Abstract

Alongside ecosystem services, ecosystems also produce functions that detract from human wellbeing, termed ecosystem disservices. Decision making and policy that incorporate ecosystem services and disservices better reflect the complexity of humannature interactions, yet few studies have considered ecosystem services and disservices in combination. The coral reef landscape of Tobago was used as a case study to investigate how selected services (coastline protection, fisheries production and recreational opportunity) and disservices (support of invasive species and litter trapping) cluster in space, and are affected by the hydro-morphological characteristics of the environment. Three generalities emerged (i) ecosystem services and disservices largely trade-off with eachother, (ii) coral reefs clustered to produce unique ecosystem service bundles, whose differences were driven by fisheries production, and litter trapping and support of invasives disservices, and (iii) habitat complexity, wave exposure and water quality may serve as indicators for the provisioning of ecosystem services and disservices. Although our findings are specific to one region and spatial scale, our approach provides managers with a useful way to monitor the potential for ecosystem service and disservices and support decision making.