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Exploring Resilience to Disturbances in Coral Reef Ecosystems, with Case Studies from Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

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Exploring Resilience to Disturbances in Coral Reef Ecosystems, with Case Studies from Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia Exploring resilience to disturbances in coral reef ecosystems, with case studies from Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia Anna Katrina Cresswell BSc (Hons) This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia School of Biological Sciences Marine Science 2020 Thesis declaration I, Anna Katrina Cresswell, certify that: This thesis has been substantially accomplished during enrolment in this degree. This thesis does not contain material which has been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma in my name, in any university or other tertiary institution. In the future, no part of this thesis will be used in a submission in my name, for any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution without the prior approval of The University of Western Australia and where applicable, any partner institution responsible for the joint-award of this degree. This thesis does not contain any material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text and, where relevant, in the Authorship Declaration that follows. This thesis does not violate or infringe any copyright, trademark, patent, or other rights whatsoever of any person. This thesis contains published work and/or work prepared for publication, some of which has been co-authored. Signature Date: 1/1/2020 Abstract The discipline of disturbance ecology is increasingly relevant as climatic change and anthropogenic stressors alter the frequency, intensity and duration of disturbances to natural systems. Due to the vulnerability of corals to increased water temperatures as a result of climate change, coral reefs are now considered to be the most threatened marine ecosystem. This thesis aims to improve our understanding of the responses of key components of coral reef ecosystems to both acute (short-lived intense events) and chronic (ongoing stress) disturbances using a resilience framework. I consider resilience as a function of both resistance — the capacity of a system to absorb or withstand a disturbance; and recovery — the capacity to return to a pre-disturbance state. Several chapters of this thesis investigate resilience as a concept, while others explore key biological processes underlying the resilience of reefs or consider how to assess ecosystem responses to disturbance. Following the introductory chapter 1 that contextualises the thesis in terms of previous work and also highlights important knowledge gaps, chapters 2 to 6 deal with data from various sources. Each chapter contributes to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of change resulting from disturbance. The specific aims are to: • Synthesise the global scientific literature on acute climatic disturbances to coral, in order to allow broad inferences on how these events influence coral dynamics (chapter 2); • Investigate a new methodology for remotely monitoring coral reproduction using satellite imagery (chapter 3); • Present new information on coral growth rates from a previously unsurveyed habitat at Ningaloo Reef, and explore a novel method for sampling coral growth (chapter 4); • Build a unique three-dimensional functional-structural coral model as a tool to investigate the interplay between functional traits, growth, competition and disturbance in coral communities and apply this model to test the influence of different frequencies and intensities of disturbance (chapter 5); • Investigate the role of management in mitigating a chronic disturbance (recreational fishing) across distinct coral reef habitats at Ningaloo Reef (chapter 6). iii A range of approaches are used to address these aims. Science is a cumulative process and in chapters 2 and 6 meta-analyses are used to build on existing information regarding the responses of coral and fish to disturbance. In chapters 3 and 4, an examination is made of the biological processes underlying resilience using new survey methods now available through evolving technologies; and chapter 5 describes an agent-based theoretical model I have created to explore some of the mechanisms such as growth and competition which underlie disturbance dynamics. The thesis provides new insights into the relationships between impact and recovery from acute climatic disturbances across coral reefs globally, with relevance for the study of resilience in natural systems more broadly. I demonstrate the applicability of new technologies for demographic studies of corals, providing the first estimates of coral growth rates for the Ningaloo Reef slope. Functional structural modelling is used to integrate these demographics (reproduction and growth) with competition and disturbance, and the results indicate that disturbance frequency governs simulated coral communities more than disturbance intensity. I also demonstrate the complexities of both assessing the effects of disturbances and quantifying the success of management in complex ecosystems, by demonstrating the influence of interactions between variables on the disturbance effects. Insights from chapters 1 to 6 led me to devise a framework of identifiers to help contextualise the use of the term resilience in ecological studies and in broader scientific and policy discussions. In my chapter 7 discussion I present this framework, with multiple lines of reasoning based on the previous chapters and the available literature. Resilience has become a conceptual cornerstone for the monitoring and management of tropical coral reefs. This thesis sits within the broader active and critical debate on how to best quantify the resilience of natural systems. Table of Contents Thesis declaration ...................................................................................................................... ii Abstract ............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ..........................................................................................................................v List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ vii List of Tables ............................................................................................................................ xii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... xiii Authorship declaration: co-authored publications ....................................................................xv Chapter 1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................21 Chapter 2 .............................................................................................................................36 Temporal dynamics in coral cover: a global analysis of impact and recovery from acute climatic disturbances ............................................................................................37 Abstract .............................................................................................................................37 Introduction .............................................................................................................................38 Methods .............................................................................................................................41 Results .............................................................................................................................48 Discussion .............................................................................................................................57 Conclusions .............................................................................................................................61 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................62 Chapter 3 .............................................................................................................................64 Synthetic Aperture Radar scenes of the North West Shelf, Western Australia, suggest this is an underutilised method to remotely study mass coral spawning ....................65 Abstract .............................................................................................................................65 Introduction .............................................................................................................................66 Methods .............................................................................................................................67 Results and Discussion .............................................................................................................70 Conclusions .............................................................................................................................75 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................75 Chapter 4 .............................................................................................................................76 Structure-from-motion reveals coral growth is influenced by colony size and wave energy on the reef slope at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia ........................................77 Abstract .............................................................................................................................77
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