Phase shifts, alternative states, and the unprecedented convergence of two reef systems

Ecology

Volumn 85, Issue 7, 2004, Pages 1876-1891

  Aronson, Richard B ^a,b   Macintyre, Ian G ^c   Wapnick, Cheryl M ^a,b,d   O'Neill, Matthew W ^a,e  

^a DAUPHIN ISLAND SEA LAB   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA   (United States)

^c SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION   (United States)

^d PBS and J   (United States)

^e NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Acropora; Agaricia; Alternative states; Belize; Coral reef; Holocene; Paleoecology; Panama; Phase shift; Porites; Species dominance; Species turnover

Indexed keywords

COMMUNITY STRUCTURE; CORAL REEF; DISTURBANCE; DOMINANCE; PALEOECOLOGY; TURNOVER;

ALMIRANTE BAY; BELIZE; BOCAS DEL TORO; CENTRAL AMERICA; PANAMA [CENTRAL AMERICA];

ACROPORA; ACROPORA CERVICORNIS; AGARICIA; AGARICIA AGARICITES; AGARICIA TENUIFOLIA; ANTHOZOA; LACTUCA; LUEHEIA; PORITES; PORITES FURCATA; SCLERACTINIA;

EID: 4444327012     PISSN: 00129658     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1890/03-0108     Document Type: Article

References (66)

1. Acevedo, R., J. Morelock, and R. A. Olivieri. 1989. Modification of coral reef zonation by terrigenous sediment stress. Palaios 4:92-100.
2. Aronson, R. B., I. G. Macintyre, W. F. Precht, T. J. T. Murdoch, and C. M. Wapnick. 2002a. The expanding scale of species turnover events on coral reefs in Belize. Ecological Monographs 72:150-166.
3. Aronson, R. B., and W. F. Precht. 1997. Stasis, biological disturbance, and community structure of a Holocene coral reef. Paleobiology 23:326-346.
4. Aronson, R. B., and W. F. Precht. 2001. Evolutionary paleoecology of Caribbean coral reefs. Pages 171-233 in W. D. Allmon and D. J. Bottjer, editors. Evolutionary paleoecology: the ecological context of macroevolutionary change. Columbia University Press, New York, New York, USA.
5. Aronson, R. B., W. F. Precht, and I. G. Macintyre. 1998. Extrinsic control of species replacement on a Holocene reef in Belize: the role of coral disease. Coral Reefs 17:223-230.
6. Aronson, R. B., W. F. Precht, I. G. Macintyre, and T. J. T. Murdoch. 2000. Coral bleach-out in Belize. Nature 405:36.
7. Aronson, R. B., W. F. Precht, M. A. Toscano, and K. H. Koltes. 2002b. The 1998 bleaching event and its aftermath on coral reefs in Belize. Marine Biology 141:435-447.
8. Beisner, B. E., D. T. Haydon, and K. Cuddington. 2003. Alternative stable states in ecology. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1:376-382.
9. Belyea, L. R., and J. Lancaster. 1999. Assembly rules within a contingent ecology. Oikos 86:402-416.
10. Bertness, M. D., G. C. Trussell, P. J. Ewanchuk, and B. R. Silliman. 2002. Do alternate stable community states exist in the Gulf of Maine rocky intertidal zone? Ecology 83:3434-3448.
11. Carlon, D. B. 1999. The evolution of mating systems in tropical reef corals. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 14:491-495.
12. Connolly, S. R., D. R. Bellwood, and T. P. Hughes. 2003. Indo-Pacific biodiversity of coral reefs: deviations from a mid-domain model. Ecology 84:2178-2190.
13. Dardeau, M. R., R. B. Aronson, W. F. Precht, and I. G. Macintyre. 2000. Use of a hand-operated, open-barrel corer to sample uncemented Holocene coral reefs. Pages 6-9 in P. Hallock and L. French, editors. Diving for science in the 21st century: 20th annual symposium of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences. University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA.
14. Dodge, R. E., and A. H. Knap. 1994. Long-term monitoring (2.5 years) of effects of short-term field exposure of stony corals to dispersed and undispersed crude oil. Pages 87-93 in R. N. Ginsburg, editor. Proceedings of the colloquium on global aspects of coral reefs: health, hazards and history, 1993. Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA.
15. Done, T. J. 1999. Coral community adaptability to environmental change at the scales of regions, reefs and reef zones. American Zoologist 39:66-79.
16. Done, T. J., P. K. Dayton, A. E. Dayton, and R. Steger. 1991. Regional and local variability in recovery of shallow coral communities: Moorea, French Polynesia and central Great Barrier Reef. Coral Reefs 9:183-192.
17. Drake, J. A. 1990. Communities as assembled structures: do rules govern pattern? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 5:159-164.
18. Edinger, E. N., and M. J. Risk. 1995. Preferential survivorship of brooding corals in a regional extinction. Paleobiology 21:200-219.
19. Edmunds, P. J. 2002. Long-term dynamics of coral reefs in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Coral Reefs 21:357-367.
20. Gardner, T. A., I. M. Côté, J. A. Gill, A. Grant, and A. R. Watkinson. 2003. Long-term region-wide declines in Caribbean corals. Science 301:958-960.
21. Greenstein, B. J., and H. A. Moffat. 1996. Comparative taphonomy of modern and Pleistocene corals, San Salvador, Bahamas. Palaios 11:57-63.
22. Guzmán, H. M., and C. A. Guevara. 1998a. Arrecifes coralinos de Bocas del Toro, Panamá: I. Distribución, estructura y estado de conservación de los arrecifes continentales de la Laguna de Chiriquí y la Bahía Almirante. Revista de Biología Tropical 46:601-622.
23. Guzmán, H. M., and C. A. Guevara. 1998b. Arrecifes coralinos de Bocas del Toro, Panamá: II. Distribución, estructura y estado de conservación de los arrecifes de las Islas Bastimentos, Solarte, Carenero y Colón. Revista de Biología Tropical 46:889-912.
24. Hallock, P., and W. Schlager. 1986. Nutrient excess and the demise of coral reefs and carbonate platforms. Palaios 1:389-398.
25. Hay, M. E. 1984. Patterns of fish and urchin grazing on Caribbean coral reefs: are previous results typical? Ecology 65:446-454.
26. Heckadon-Moreno, S. 1997. Spanish rule, independence, and the modern colonization frontiers. Pages 177-214 in A. G. Coates, editor. Central America: a natural and cultural history. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
27. Helmuth, B. S. T., K. P. Sebens, and T. L. Daniel. 1997. Morphological variation in coral aggregations: branch spacing and mass flux to coral tissues. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 209:233-259.
28. Hughes, T. P. 1994. Catastrophes, phase shifts and large-scale degradation of a Caribbean coral reef. Science 265:1547-1551.
29. Hughes, T. P., and J. H. Connell. 1999. Multiple stressors on coral reefs: a long-term perspective. Limnology and Oceanography 44:932-940.
30. Jackson, J. B. C. 1992. Pleistocene perspectives of coral reef community structure. American Zoologist 32:719-731.
31. Jackson, J. B. C. 2001. What was natural in the coastal oceans? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 98:5411-5418.
32. Johnson, K. G., A. F. Budd, and T. A. Stemann. 1995. Extinction selectivity and ecology of Neogene Caribbean reef corals. Paleobiology 21:52-73.
33. Karlson, R. H. 1999. Dynamics of coral communities. Kluwer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
34. Knowlton, N. 1992. Thresholds and multiple stable states in coral reef community dynamics. American Zoologist 32:674-682.
35. Knowlton, N. 2001. The future of coral reefs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 98:5419-5425.
36. Knowlton, N., J. C. Lang, and B. D. Keller. 1990. Case study of natural population collapse: post-hurricane predation on Jamaican staghorn corals. Smithsonian Contributions to the Marine Sciences 31:1-25.
37. LaBarge, R. A. 1959. A study of United Fruit Company operations in Isthmian America, 1946-1956. Dissertation. Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
38. Lasker, H. R., E. C. Peters, and M. A. Coffroth. 1984. Bleaching of reef coelenterates in the San Blas Islands, Panama. Coral Reefs 3:183-190.
39. Lewis, J. B. 1984. The Acropora inheritance: a reinterpretation of the development of fringing reefs in Barbados, West Indies. Coral Reefs 3:117-122.
40. Lewis, S. M. 1986. The role of herbivorous fishes in the organization of a Caribbean reef community. Ecological Monographs 56:183-200.
41. Lewis, S. M., and P. C. Wainwright. 1985. Herbivore abundance and grazing intensity on a Caribbean coral reef. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 87:215-228.
42. Lewontin, R. C. 1969. The meaning of stability. Brookhaven Symposia in Biology 22:13-24.
43. Littler, M. M., P. R. Taylor, and D. S. Littler. 1989. Complex interactions in the control of coral zonation on a Caribbean reef flat. Oecologia 80:331-340.
44. Macintyre, I. G., W. F. Precht, and R. B. Aronson. 2000. Origin of the Pelican Cays ponds, Belize. Atoll Research Bulletin 466:1-12.
45. Manzello, D., and D. Lirman. 2003. The photosynthetic resilience of Porites furcata to salinity disturbance. Coral Reefs 22:537-540.
46. McClanahan, T. R., E. Sala, P. A. Stickels, B. A. Cokos, A. C. Baker, C. J. Starger, and S. H. Jones, IV. 2003. Interaction between nutrients and herbivory in controlling algal communities and coral condition on Glover's Reef, Belize. Marine Ecology Progress Series 261:135-147.
47. McField, M. D. 1999. Coral response during and after mass bleaching in Belize. Bulletin of Marine Science 64:155-172.
48. McKinney, M. L., and J. L. Lockwood. 1999. Biotic homogenization: a few winners replacing many losers in the next mass extinction. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 14:450-453.
49. Miller, M. W., and M. E. Hay. 1998. Effects of fish predation and seaweed competition on the survival and growth of corals. Oecologia 113:231-238.
50. Morse, D. E., N. Hooker, A. N. C. Morse, and R. A. Jensen. 1988. Control of larval metamorphosis and recruitment in sympatric agariciid corals. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 116:193-217.
51. Neumann, C. J., B. R. Jarvinen, A. C. Pike, and J. D. Elms. 1987. Tropical cyclones of the North Atlantic Ocean, 1871-1986. Third revision. NOAA National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, North Carolina, USA.
52. Phillips, S., and R. M. Bustin. 1996. Sedimentology of the Changuinola peat deposit: organic and clastic sedimentary response to punctuated coastal subsidence. Geological Society of America Bulletin 108:794-814.
53. Plafker, G., and S. N. Ward. 1992. Backarc thrust faulting and tectonic uplift along the Caribbean sea coast during the April 22, 1991 Costa Rica earthquake. Tectonics 11:709-718.
54. Rahel, F. J. 2002. Homogenization of freshwater faunas. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 33:291-315.
55. Richardson, L. L. 1998. Coral diseases: what is really known? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 13:438-443.
56. Robbart, M. L., P. Peckol, S. P. Scordilis, H. A. Curran, and J. Brown-Saracino. In press. Populations dynamics and differential heat shock protein expression for the corals Agaricia agaricites and A. tenuifolia in Belize: implications for future ENSO-related thermal anomalies. Marine Ecology Progress Series.
57. Sebens, K. P., B. Helmuth, E. Carrington, and B. Agius. 2003. Effects of water flow on growth and energetics of the scleractinian coral Agaricia tenuifolia. Coral Reefs 22:35-47.
58. Shyka, T. A., and K. P. Sebens. 2000. Community structure, water column nutrients, and water flow in two Pelican Cays ponds, Belize. Atoll Research Bulletin 471:105-121.
59. Sokal, R. R., and F. J. Rohlf. 1981. Biometry. Second edition. W. H. Freeman, New York, New York, USA.
60. Soong, K. 1991. Sexual reproductive patterns of shallow-water reef corals in Panama. Bulletin of Marine Science 49:832-846.
61. Sutherland, J. P. 1974. Multiple stable points in natural communities. American Naturalist 108:859-873.
62. Szmant, A. M. 2002. Nutrient enrichment on coral reefs: is it a major cause of coral reef decline? Estuaries 25:743-766.
63. Tomascik, T., and F. Sander. 1987. Effects of eutrophication on reef-building corals: II. Structure of scleractinian coral communities on fringing reefs, Barbados, West Indies. Marine Biology 94:53-75.
64. 14C dates from Acropora palmata and intertidal mangrove peat. Coral Reefs 22:257-270.
65. Veron, J. E. N. 1995. Corals in space and time. UNSW Press, Sydney, Australia.
66. Wittenberg, M., and W. Hunte. 1992. Effects of eutrophication and sedimentation on juvenile corals: I. Abundance, mortality and community structure. Marine Biology 112:131-138.