Article
 

Overfishing and nutrient pollution interact with temperature to disrupt coral reefs down to microbial scales

Public Deposited

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/articles/h415pc33v

Descriptions

Attribute NameValues
Creator
Abstract
  • Losses of corals worldwide emphasize the need to understand what drives reef decline. Stressors such as overfishing and nutrient pollution may reduce resilience of coral reefs by increasing coral–algal competition and reducing coral recruitment, growth and survivorship. Such effects may themselves develop via several mechanisms, including disruption of coral microbiomes. Here we report the results of a 3-year field experiment simulating overfishing and nutrient pollution. These stressors increase turf and macroalgal cover, destabilizing microbiomes, elevating putative pathogen loads, increasing disease more than twofold and increasing mortality up to eightfold. Above-average temperatures exacerbate these effects, further disrupting microbiomes of unhealthy corals and concentrating 80% of mortality in the warmest seasons. Surprisingly, nutrients also increase bacterial opportunism and mortality in corals bitten by parrotfish, turning normal trophic interactions deadly for corals. Thus, overfishing and nutrient pollution impact reefs down to microbial scales, killing corals by sensitizing them to predation, above-average temperatures and bacterial opportunism.
  • This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the author(s) and published by Nature Publishing Group. The published article and supplementary data can be found at: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160607/ncomms11833/full/ncomms11833.html
Resource Type
DOI
Date Available
Date Issued
Citation
  • Zaneveld, J. R., Burkepile, D. E., Shantz, A. A., Pritchard, C. E., McMinds, R., Payet, J. P., ... & Thurber, R. V. (2016). Overfishing and nutrient pollution interact with temperature to disrupt coral reefs down to microbial scales. Nature Communications, 7, 11833. doi:10.1038/ncomms11833
Journal Title
Journal Volume
  • 7
Rights Statement
Funding Statement (additional comments about funding)
  • This research was supported by National Science Foundation grant OCE-1130786 to D.E.B and R.V.T., Florida International University and Oregon State University.
Publisher
Peer Reviewed
Language
Replaces

Relationships

Parents:

This work has no parents.

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details ZaneveldOverfishingandNutrientPollution.pdf 2017-07-25 Public Download