Local Human Impacts Disrupt Relationships Between Benthic Reef Assemblages and Environmental Predictors
Human activities are changing ecosystems at an unprecedented rate, yet large-scale studies into how local human impacts alter natural systems and interact with other aspects of global change are still lacking. Here we provide empirical evidence that local human impacts fundamentally alter relationsh...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2020-10-01
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Series: | Frontiers in Marine Science |
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Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.571115/full |
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doaj-179188a7fe9d4403a979d0c13f39d097 |
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record_format |
Article |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Amanda K. Ford Amanda K. Ford Amanda K. Ford Amanda K. Ford Jean-Baptiste Jouffray Jean-Baptiste Jouffray Albert V. Norström Bradley R. Moore Bradley R. Moore Bradley R. Moore Maggy M. Nugues Maggy M. Nugues Gareth J. Williams Sonia Bejarano Franck Magron Christian Wild Sebastian C. A. Ferse Sebastian C. A. Ferse |
spellingShingle |
Amanda K. Ford Amanda K. Ford Amanda K. Ford Amanda K. Ford Jean-Baptiste Jouffray Jean-Baptiste Jouffray Albert V. Norström Bradley R. Moore Bradley R. Moore Bradley R. Moore Maggy M. Nugues Maggy M. Nugues Gareth J. Williams Sonia Bejarano Franck Magron Christian Wild Sebastian C. A. Ferse Sebastian C. A. Ferse Local Human Impacts Disrupt Relationships Between Benthic Reef Assemblages and Environmental Predictors Frontiers in Marine Science climate change reef degradation ecological reorganisation ecological homogenisation generalised additive models model selection |
author_facet |
Amanda K. Ford Amanda K. Ford Amanda K. Ford Amanda K. Ford Jean-Baptiste Jouffray Jean-Baptiste Jouffray Albert V. Norström Bradley R. Moore Bradley R. Moore Bradley R. Moore Maggy M. Nugues Maggy M. Nugues Gareth J. Williams Sonia Bejarano Franck Magron Christian Wild Sebastian C. A. Ferse Sebastian C. A. Ferse |
author_sort |
Amanda K. Ford |
title |
Local Human Impacts Disrupt Relationships Between Benthic Reef Assemblages and Environmental Predictors |
title_short |
Local Human Impacts Disrupt Relationships Between Benthic Reef Assemblages and Environmental Predictors |
title_full |
Local Human Impacts Disrupt Relationships Between Benthic Reef Assemblages and Environmental Predictors |
title_fullStr |
Local Human Impacts Disrupt Relationships Between Benthic Reef Assemblages and Environmental Predictors |
title_full_unstemmed |
Local Human Impacts Disrupt Relationships Between Benthic Reef Assemblages and Environmental Predictors |
title_sort |
local human impacts disrupt relationships between benthic reef assemblages and environmental predictors |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
issn |
2296-7745 |
publishDate |
2020-10-01 |
description |
Human activities are changing ecosystems at an unprecedented rate, yet large-scale studies into how local human impacts alter natural systems and interact with other aspects of global change are still lacking. Here we provide empirical evidence that local human impacts fundamentally alter relationships between ecological communities and environmental drivers. Using tropical coral reefs as a study system, we investigated the influence of contrasting levels of local human impact using a spatially extensive dataset spanning 62 outer reefs around inhabited Pacific islands. We tested how local human impacts (low versus high determined using a threshold of 25 people km−2 reef) affected benthic community (i) structure, and (ii) relationships with environmental predictors using pre-defined models and model selection tools. Data on reef depth, benthic assemblages, and herbivorous fish communities were collected from field surveys. Additional data on thermal stress, storm exposure, and market gravity (a function of human population size and reef accessibility) were extracted from public repositories. Findings revealed that reefs subject to high local human impact were characterised by relatively more turf algae (>10% higher mean absolute coverage) and lower live coral cover (9% less mean absolute coverage) than reefs subject to low local human impact, but had similar macroalgal cover and coral morphological composition. Models based on spatio-physical predictors were significantly more accurate in explaining the variation of benthic assemblages at sites with low (mean adjusted-R2 = 0.35) rather than high local human impact, where relationships became much weaker (mean adjusted-R2 = 0.10). Model selection procedures also identified a distinct shift in the relative importance of different herbivorous fish functional groups in explaining benthic communities depending on the local human impact level. These results demonstrate that local human impacts alter natural systems and indicate that projecting climate change impacts may be particularly challenging at reefs close to higher human populations, where dependency and pressure on ecosystem services are highest. |
topic |
climate change reef degradation ecological reorganisation ecological homogenisation generalised additive models model selection |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.571115/full |
work_keys_str_mv |
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doaj-179188a7fe9d4403a979d0c13f39d0972020-11-25T03:43:52ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Marine Science2296-77452020-10-01710.3389/fmars.2020.571115571115Local Human Impacts Disrupt Relationships Between Benthic Reef Assemblages and Environmental PredictorsAmanda K. Ford0Amanda K. Ford1Amanda K. Ford2Amanda K. Ford3Jean-Baptiste Jouffray4Jean-Baptiste Jouffray5Albert V. Norström6Bradley R. Moore7Bradley R. Moore8Bradley R. Moore9Maggy M. Nugues10Maggy M. Nugues11Gareth J. Williams12Sonia Bejarano13Franck Magron14Christian Wild15Sebastian C. A. Ferse16Sebastian C. A. Ferse17Department of Ecology, Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen, GermanyDepartment of Marine Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Chemistry (FB2), University of Bremen, Bremen, GermanyStockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SwedenSchool of Marine Studies, Faculty of Science, Technology and Environment, The University of the South Pacific, Suva, FijiStockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SwedenGlobal Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere Academy Programme, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, SwedenStockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SwedenPacific Community (SPC), Noumea, New CaledoniaInstitute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, AustraliaNational Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Nelson, New ZealandEPHE, PSL Research University, UPVD-CNRS, USR3278 CRIOBE, Paris, France0Labex Corail, CRIOBE, Moorea, French Polynesia1School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Anglesey, United Kingdom2Reef Systems Research Group, Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen, GermanyPacific Community (SPC), Noumea, New CaledoniaDepartment of Marine Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Chemistry (FB2), University of Bremen, Bremen, GermanyDepartment of Ecology, Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen, GermanyDepartment of Marine Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Chemistry (FB2), University of Bremen, Bremen, GermanyHuman activities are changing ecosystems at an unprecedented rate, yet large-scale studies into how local human impacts alter natural systems and interact with other aspects of global change are still lacking. Here we provide empirical evidence that local human impacts fundamentally alter relationships between ecological communities and environmental drivers. Using tropical coral reefs as a study system, we investigated the influence of contrasting levels of local human impact using a spatially extensive dataset spanning 62 outer reefs around inhabited Pacific islands. We tested how local human impacts (low versus high determined using a threshold of 25 people km−2 reef) affected benthic community (i) structure, and (ii) relationships with environmental predictors using pre-defined models and model selection tools. Data on reef depth, benthic assemblages, and herbivorous fish communities were collected from field surveys. Additional data on thermal stress, storm exposure, and market gravity (a function of human population size and reef accessibility) were extracted from public repositories. Findings revealed that reefs subject to high local human impact were characterised by relatively more turf algae (>10% higher mean absolute coverage) and lower live coral cover (9% less mean absolute coverage) than reefs subject to low local human impact, but had similar macroalgal cover and coral morphological composition. Models based on spatio-physical predictors were significantly more accurate in explaining the variation of benthic assemblages at sites with low (mean adjusted-R2 = 0.35) rather than high local human impact, where relationships became much weaker (mean adjusted-R2 = 0.10). Model selection procedures also identified a distinct shift in the relative importance of different herbivorous fish functional groups in explaining benthic communities depending on the local human impact level. These results demonstrate that local human impacts alter natural systems and indicate that projecting climate change impacts may be particularly challenging at reefs close to higher human populations, where dependency and pressure on ecosystem services are highest.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.571115/fullclimate changereef degradationecological reorganisationecological homogenisationgeneralised additive modelsmodel selection |