2023-04-05 カリフォルニア大学サンタバーバラ校(UCSB)
この研究は、フランス領ポリネシアのモーレア島周辺のサンゴとサンゴ礁の生態系を調査したものです。骨格はさまざまな種類の動物の生息場所となり、サンゴ礁の構造の複雑さがサンゴの回復の早さと関連することを示唆する証拠もあります。
モーレア島では、死んだサンゴの骨格を除去した場合の影響について、現在も実験が行われています。
<関連情報>
- https://www.news.ucsb.edu/2023/020884/stripped-bone
- https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.4006
物質的な遺産は、レジリエンスを低下させる: サンゴ礁のレジームシフトを促進する構造保持型の擾乱 Material legacies can degrade resilience: Structure-retaining disturbances promote regime shifts on coral reefs
Kai L. Kopecky, Adrian C. Stier, Russell J. Schmitt, Sally J. Holbrook, Holly V. Moeller
Ecology Published: 18 February 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4006
Abstract
Standing dead structures of habitat-forming organisms (e.g., dead trees, coral skeletons, oyster shells) killed by a disturbance are material legacies that can affect ecosystem recovery processes. Many ecosystems are subject to different types of disturbance that either remove biogenic structures or leave them intact. Here we used a mathematical model to quantify how the resilience of coral reef ecosystems may be differentially affected following structure-removing and structure-retaining disturbance events, focusing in particular on the potential for regime shifts from coral to macroalgae. We found that dead coral skeletons could substantially diminish coral resilience if they provided macroalgae refuge from herbivory, a key feedback associated with the recovery of coral populations. Our model shows that the material legacy of dead skeletons broadens the range of herbivore biomass over which coral and macroalgae states are bistable. Hence, material legacies can alter resilience by modifying the underlying relationship between a system driver (herbivory) and a state variable (coral cover).
