Distribution and Prevalence of Bioerosion Within Two Coral Species on Inshore and Offshore Reefs Across the Western Caribbean Sea
Bioerosion, the process by which organisms bore into hard substrate, weakens coral skeletons and degrades the quality of coral reef habitats. Prior studies reveal that bioerosion is enhanced by ocean acidification, eutrophication resulting from the addition of nitrogen into the environment, and othe...
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| Other Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2020
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.17615/hgyx-3135 https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/downloads/g158bp55m?file=thumbnail https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/downloads/g158bp55m |
| Summary: | Bioerosion, the process by which organisms bore into hard substrate, weakens coral skeletons and degrades the quality of coral reef habitats. Prior studies reveal that bioerosion is enhanced by ocean acidification, eutrophication resulting from the addition of nitrogen into the environment, and other anthropogenic factors. However, these studies were primarily conducted in the Indo-Pacific region, while little is known about the distribution and prevalence of bioerosion across the wider Caribbean Sea. To address this shortcoming, we extracted 191 skeletal cores from two abundant and ubiquitous Caribbean corals (Siderastrea siderea and Pseudodiploria strigosa) in a hierarchical sampling design spanning inshore and offshore reef zones across three major reef systems that include the Florida Keys Reef Tract (FKRT), the Belize Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS), and the Panama Bocas del Toro Reef Complex (BTRC). It was hypothesized that inshore corals are more severely impacted by bioerosion due to their closer proximity to local anthropogenic sources of stress and that species would differ in their susceptibility due to differences in skeletal architecture. The number of bivalve boring holes within cores of both species and the percent volume of S. siderea cores bioeroded was quantified. The percent volume of P. strigosa cores bioeroded was not quantified due to its very complex skeletal growth structure. Linear modeling and variance partitioning were employed to relate quantities of bioerosion to ambient environmental conditions on reef collection sites. The number of bivalve borings was higher in cores collected from inshore corals when compared to offshore corals. Siderastrea siderea cores were plagued by greater numbers of bivalve borings than P. strigosa, providing evidence for a host preference amongst bivalve bioeroders. The differences between reef zones and species are less pronounced in the Florida Keys Reef Tract; suggesting that Florida is distinct from the other two reef systems in the western ... |
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