Research Square (Research Square), Journal Year: 2024, Volume and Issue: unknown

Published: Nov. 18, 2024

The resilience of many coral reef communities has been diminished in the Anthropocene. Nowhere is this more evident than southeast Florida, where cover rarely recovers following increasingly frequent disturbances and resulted community change to resilient taxa such as octocorals. Understanding dynamics demographic mechanisms populations that underpin them, may provide insight into barriers recovery future for benthic structure. We leveraged 20 years data test spatiotemporal variation structure region-wide changes four stony three octocoral species. From 2003 2023, multiple acute induced significant reconfigurations structure, most notably repeated loss macroalgal gains. Interspecific differences demography suggest variability resilience, which facilitates presence ecological winners losers. Siderastrea siderea (stony coral) Antillogorgia americana (octocoral) exhibited high fueled by booms recruit density. However, S. size frequency distributions (SFDs) were heavily skewed with few large colonies, suggesting limited growth survival. Porites astreoides Gorgonia ventalina grew steadily from 2013 facilitated consistent recruitment growth, was reflected lognormal SFDs, indicative transition between classes. reef-building corals Meandrina meandrites Montastraea cavernosa emerged losers due substantial mortality heat stress disease recovery. Due restricted (S. P. astreoides) or planar morphologies (A. americana, Eunicea flexuosa (octocoral), G. ventalina) winners, they contribute little cover. As a result, becoming homogenous, much remaining spatial dependent upon whether site sediment/turf algae macroalgae/cyanobacteria, combined constitute over 80% further reduce potential.

Language: Английский