Abstract
The occurrence and proliferation of reef-forming corals is of vast importance in terms of the biodiversity they support and the ecosystem services they provide. The complex three-dimensional structures engineered by corals are comprised of both live and dead coral, and the function, growth and stability of these systems will depend on the ratio of both. To model how the ratio of live : dead coral may change, the ‘Goldilocks Principle’ can be used, where organisms will only flourish if conditions are ‘just right’. With data from particle imaging velocimetry and numerical smooth particle hydrodynamic modelling with two simple rules, we demonstrate how this principle can be applied to a model reef system, and how corals are effectively optimizing their own local flow requirements through habitat engineering. Building on advances here, these approaches can be used in conjunction with numerical modelling to investigate the growth and mortality of biodiversity supporting framework in present-day and future coral reef structures.
Highlights
Coral reef ecosystems represent one of the most structurally complex habitats in the oceans, and support biodiverse ecological communities spanning both tropical and deep-sea environments [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
Due to the diverse communities they support, and the threats they face such as bleaching [8] and ocean acidification [9,10], considerable attention is given to understanding the future state of coral reef assemblages
A key issue to understand is how stony corals grow in different conditions in the present day, as that will have a major bearing on the diversity of these ecosystems in the future
Summary
Coral reef ecosystems represent one of the most structurally complex habitats in the oceans, and support biodiverse ecological communities spanning both tropical and deep-sea environments [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Coral mortality will occur if conditions are suboptimal with regard to current speed and prey capture (figure 1) This mortality is part of the normal reef growth process and can be observed on L. pertusa stony branching reefs worldwide, where live coral is growing on the top of the dead coral matrix with exposed skeletal framework [16,36] (figure 2). In these reefs, death of coral is likely driven by lack of available food or adequate current velocities [36]. Through combining PIV data with the introduction of SPH models and simple ‘death rules’, we examine how energetic reserves would shape coral framework, and explore how the Goldilocks Principle could be used to investigate the live : dead ratios of the framework in both present-day and future scenario coral reefs
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