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1-Yr of Coral Community Dynamics in Reefs Around 1-yr of coral community dynamics in reefs around Dahab (Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea): the collapse of urchins and rise of macroalgae and cyanobacterial mats Miriam Reverter, Matthew Jackson, Nauras Daraghmeh, Christian von Mach, Nina Milton To cite this version: Miriam Reverter, Matthew Jackson, Nauras Daraghmeh, Christian von Mach, Nina Milton. 1-yr of coral community dynamics in reefs around Dahab (Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea): the collapse of urchins and rise of macroalgae and cyanobacterial mats. Coral Reefs, Springer Verlag, 2020. hal-03020819 HAL Id: hal-03020819 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03020819 Submitted on 24 Nov 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Coral Reefs https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-01988-6 REPORT 11-yr of coral community dynamics in reefs around Dahab (Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea): the collapse of urchins and rise of macroalgae and cyanobacterial mats 1,2 1,2 2,3 Miriam Reverter • Matthew Jackson • Nauras Daraghmeh • 2 2 Christian von Mach • Nina Milton Received: 17 February 2020 / Accepted: 23 July 2020 Ó The Author(s) 2020 Abstract Corals from the Gulf of Aqaba (northern Red hard coral cover, both macroalgae mat cover and Sea) are resilient to high temperatures and therefore this cyanobacterial mat cover were significantly negatively region is regarded as globally important for reef conser- related to hard coral cover and hard coral disease. Soft vation. However, long-term dynamics of coral reef coral cover (mainly corals from the Xeniidae family) assemblages from the Gulf of Aqaba remain largely decreased significantly in two of the site clusters, their understudied. In this study, we analysed the change in cover being negatively related to macroalgal and benthic, fish and invertebrate assemblages of reefs around cyanobacterial cover. Significant declines in grazer urchins Dahab (South Sinai, Egypt) between 2009 and 2019. We were observed at all site clusters, and a strong negative also studied the individual trajectories of coral reef benthic relationship was found with macroalgae and cyanobacterial categories, key invertebrate and fish species and their mats cover, suggesting urchin decline as one of the main relationship. As site emerged as the main factor explaining drivers behind algal increases. Different site clusters had the variability in coral reef communities, we identified different fish trajectories (butterflyfish, parrotfish, sur- three clusters of sites with similar assemblages. Both geonfish and predators), with only damselfish densities benthic, fish and invertebrate assemblages changed con- significantly decreasing at all sites. A significant decrease siderably at the three site clusters between 2009 and 2019. in damselfish densities was related to increases in We found significant increases in fleshy macroalgae (* 6 cyanobacterial mats. These findings suggest that if to 15%) and cyanobacterial mats (* 6 to 12%) in all site macroalgae and cyanobacteria continue to increase, Dahab clusters. Although not observing a significant reduction of coral reefs could undergo degradation, and therefore, more studies are needed to elucidate the drivers behind these algal increases. Topic Editor Morgan S. Pratchett Keywords Coral reef Á Gulf of Aqaba Á Coral reef Electronic supplementary material The online version of this resilience Á Macroalgae Á Cyanobacterial mats Á Urchins Á article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-01988-6) contains sup- plementary material, which is available to authorised users. Algae phase shift & Miriam Reverter [email protected] Introduction & Christian von Mach [email protected] Coral reefs, which harbour 25% of the marine biodiversity 1 Institut fu¨r Chemie und Biologie des Meeres (ICBM), Carl and provide ecosystem services to over 500 million people, von Ossietzky Universita¨t Oldenburg, Schleusenstraße 1, are suffering severe degradation due to the combined 26382 Wilhelmshaven, Germany effects of anthropogenic perturbations and global climate 2 Red Sea Environmental Centre (RSEC), Dahab, Egypt change (Hughes et al. 2017; Lamb et al. 2018). Anthro- 3 Department of Marine Ecology, Faculty of Biology and pogenic disturbances such as overfishing, coastal devel- Chemistry, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany opment and pollution, together with increasing climate 123 Coral Reefs anomalies reduce coral reef resilience, which can result in regrowth (Williams and Polunin 2001; Burkepile and Hay changes of coral reef assemblages (Adjeroud et al. 2018; 2008; Sandin and McNamara 2012). However, when her- Hughes et al. 2018a; McWilliam et al. 2020). Decreases in bivory capacity is reduced, for example due to overfishing coral cover and increases in alternate groups such as algae or algal deterrence, algae can proliferate and disrupt coral or sponges are increasingly common and have profound reef functioning, leading to coral reef degradation and a effects on ecosystem functioning and the ecosystem ser- community phase shift (Bellwood et al. 2004; Hoey and vices provided (Done 1992; Norstro¨m et al. 2009; Bell Bellwood 2011). Given the key importance of the Gulf of et al. 2013). Declines in the scleractinian coral cover of up Aqaba region at a global scale, long-term studies are nee- to 80% in Caribbean coral reefs and 50% in the Indo- ded to investigate the dynamics and state of its coral reef Pacific have been reported (e.g. Bruno and Selig 2007; assemblages and evaluate the full implications of the pre- Gardner et al. 2003; Pandolfi et al. 2003; De’ath et al. viously reported algal increases, in order to establish ade- 2012). More recently, unprecedented pan-tropical mass quate conservation measures. bleaching, which killed 30% of the world’s largest coral In this study, we have surveyed fringing reefs in the Dahab reef ecosystem, the Great Barrier Reef, has raised concerns area (South Sinai, Egypt) between 2009 and 2019. Dahab is a about the future of coral reefs under pressure in the world-renowned dive destination since the late 1990s and its Anthropocene (Hughes et al. 2017, 2018b). reefs are amongst the world’s most dived upon (30,000 With the increasing frequency and intensity of bleaching dives/yr) (Hasler and Ott 2008). We collected data on the reef events and estimates predicting 90% of the world’s coral benthos composition, the abundance of diseased coral reefs are expected to experience severe bleaching by 2050 colonies and the densities of key invertebrate and fish species (van Hooidonk et al. 2014; Heron et al. 2016), conservation in order to: (1) study whether there were significant temporal of regions with heat-tolerant corals is paramount. The Red changes in reef benthos assemblages or fish and invertebrate Sea, which extends between the Arabian Peninsula and the communities and (2) analyse individual temporal trajectories African mainland, is one of the world’s warmest (20–28 °C of benthos categories, colonies of diseased coral and key in the Northern Red Sea and 28–35 °C in the Southern Red invertebrate and fish species. We also explored the rela- Sea) and most saline water bodies (36–42 ppt) hosting tionships between different organisms to explore the fol- highly diverse coral reefs (Abdelmongy and El-Moselhy lowing hypotheses: (1) whether macroalgae and 2015; Rasul et al. 2015). Despite the northern Red Sea cyanobacterial mats affect hard and soft coral cover and the displaying the highest rates of warming throughout the Red abundance of hard coral diseases and (2) if top-down control Sea (Chaidez et al. 2017), including more severe thermal (from herbivorous fish or herbivorous invertebrates such as anomalies (Osman et al. 2018), this region has not expe- urchins) is related to changes in fleshy macroalgae and rienced massive coral bleaching events. Due to this high cyanobacterial mats cover. coral heat tolerance, the northern Red Sea has been pro- posed as a coral refuge of global importance, as this region may host a gene pool of heat-resistant scleractinian corals Materials and methods that could be extremely useful for reef restoration efforts around the world (Fine et al. 2013). Coral reefs in the Gulf Coral reef surveys of Aqaba are, however, subject to increasing anthropogenic disturbances mostly linked to the development of the A total of 11 fringing reefs around Dahab in the northern tourism sector (Rinkevich 2005; Naumann et al. 2015). Red Sea were surveyed twice a year (August–September Previous studies have shown the deleterious effects of and March–April) between 2009 and 2019 using four end- intensive diving and snorkelling activities, coastal devel- to-end 20 m transects perpendicular to the reef slope opment and eutrophication on the health of northern Red (Fig. 1a). Surveys were carried out by volunteers trained Sea coral reefs (Zakai and Chadwick-Furman 2002; Hasler and supervised by professional scientists (ESM Supple- and Ott 2008; Naumann et al. 2015). Short-term studies in mentary Information). Benthic composition, coral damage the area (1–3 yr) have reported increases in the cover of and invertebrate and fish indicator species were monitored turf algae and macroalgae, which were positively corre- at each site at 5 and 10 m depth, using SCUBA. Due to lated to environmental nutrient levels (Bahartan et al. 2010; logistics, not all sites and depths were monitored at each Naumann et al. 2015). Algae are fierce spatial competitors, sampling episode (ESM Table 1). Benthic composition and at high abundances they have multiple effects on coral was determined using the point intercept transect (PIT) health and impair coral and fish recruitment (Rasher and method (Hill and Wilkinson 2004), in which the benthos Hay 2010; Dixson et al.
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