Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Modys, Alexander B
• Oleinik, Anton E
• Toth, Lauren T
• Precht, William F
• Mortlock, Richard A

Titel

Modern coral range expansion off southeast Florida falls short of Late Holocene baseline

Ist Teil von

• Communications earth & environment, 2024-12, Vol.5 (1), p.119-12

Ort / Verlag

London: Nature Publishing Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2024

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB-FREE-00999 freely available EZB journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• As thermal stress and disease outbreaks decimate coral reefs throughout the tropics, there is growing evidence that higher latitude marine environments may provide crucial refuges for many at-risk, temperature-sensitive coral species. However, our understanding of how coral populations expand into new areas and sustain themselves over time is constrained by the limited scope of modern observations. Here, we provide geological insights into coral range expansions by reconstructing the composition of a Late Holocene-aged subfossil coral death assemblage on the southeast Florida reef tract and comparing it to modern reefs throughout the region. Our findings show that the Late Holocene coral assemblages were dominated by now critically endangered Acropora species between ~3500 and 1800 years before present, mirroring classic zonation patterns characteristic of healthy pre-1970s Caribbean reefs. In contrast, the modern reefs off southeast Florida are becoming increasingly dominated by stress-tolerant species like Porites astreoides and Siderastrea siderea despite modest expansions of Acropora cervicornis over the past several decades. Our results suggest that ongoing anthropogenic stressors, not present during the Late Holocene, are likely limiting the ability of modern higher latitude reefs in Florida to function as long-term climate refugia.Coral reefs off southeast Florida were largely covered by Acropora species in the late Holocene, but are now increasingly dominated by more stress-tolerant species in response to modern anthropogenic stressors and global warming, according to an analysis of modern and past coral assemblages covering the past 4500 years.