A scientific framework for evaluating coral reef resilience to climate change
Thesis: Ph. D., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2016. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical re...
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ftmit:oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/107209 2023-06-11T04:15:43+02:00 A scientific framework for evaluating coral reef resilience to climate change Barkley, Hannah Catherine Anne L. Cohen. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences 2016 170 pages application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107209 eng eng Massachusetts Institute of Technology http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107209 971248265 MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Coral reef conservation Global warming Research Thesis 2016 ftmit 2023-05-29T08:30:41Z Thesis: Ph. D., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2016. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references. The 21st century warming and acidification of tropical oceans will impact the structure and function of coral reef ecosystems. Consequently, conservation efforts are increasingly focused on identifying and protecting reef communities that demonstrate resilience to these changes. In this thesis, I develop a scientific framework for identifying climate change resilience in coral communities and, using Palau's coral reefs as a case study, demonstrate the application of this approach. First, I use coral skeletal records to evaluate the sensitivity of coral communities to episodes of severe thermal stress. This information reveals coral reef communities that consistently exhibit weak responses to multiple high temperature events. Second, I evaluate coral reef community structure across a strong, natural pH gradient using metrics informed by laboratory ocean acidification studies. The coral communities of Palau's Rock Island reefs show a level of pH tolerance that is unique amongst reefs studied to date. Third, I conduct laboratory and field experiments to constrain the pH thresholds of these resilient corals and investigate potential mechanisms for pH tolerance. Finally, I combine archipelago-wide coral temperature and pH sensitivity data to construct climate change resilience indices. My study succeeds in identifying a small number of coral communities that have the potential to withstand 2 1st century climate change and highlights the spatial variability in community responses to ocean warming and acidification. Critically, I present a set of scientific tools and approaches for identifying resilient coral reef communities that has applicability to coral reefs worldwide. by Hannah Catherine Barkley. ... Thesis Ocean acidification DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Hannah ENVELOPE(-60.613,-60.613,-62.654,-62.654) |
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English |
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Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Coral reef conservation Global warming Research |
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Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Coral reef conservation Global warming Research Barkley, Hannah Catherine A scientific framework for evaluating coral reef resilience to climate change |
topic_facet |
Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Coral reef conservation Global warming Research |
description |
Thesis: Ph. D., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2016. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references. The 21st century warming and acidification of tropical oceans will impact the structure and function of coral reef ecosystems. Consequently, conservation efforts are increasingly focused on identifying and protecting reef communities that demonstrate resilience to these changes. In this thesis, I develop a scientific framework for identifying climate change resilience in coral communities and, using Palau's coral reefs as a case study, demonstrate the application of this approach. First, I use coral skeletal records to evaluate the sensitivity of coral communities to episodes of severe thermal stress. This information reveals coral reef communities that consistently exhibit weak responses to multiple high temperature events. Second, I evaluate coral reef community structure across a strong, natural pH gradient using metrics informed by laboratory ocean acidification studies. The coral communities of Palau's Rock Island reefs show a level of pH tolerance that is unique amongst reefs studied to date. Third, I conduct laboratory and field experiments to constrain the pH thresholds of these resilient corals and investigate potential mechanisms for pH tolerance. Finally, I combine archipelago-wide coral temperature and pH sensitivity data to construct climate change resilience indices. My study succeeds in identifying a small number of coral communities that have the potential to withstand 2 1st century climate change and highlights the spatial variability in community responses to ocean warming and acidification. Critically, I present a set of scientific tools and approaches for identifying resilient coral reef communities that has applicability to coral reefs worldwide. by Hannah Catherine Barkley. ... |
author2 |
Anne L. Cohen. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Barkley, Hannah Catherine |
author_facet |
Barkley, Hannah Catherine |
author_sort |
Barkley, Hannah Catherine |
title |
A scientific framework for evaluating coral reef resilience to climate change |
title_short |
A scientific framework for evaluating coral reef resilience to climate change |
title_full |
A scientific framework for evaluating coral reef resilience to climate change |
title_fullStr |
A scientific framework for evaluating coral reef resilience to climate change |
title_full_unstemmed |
A scientific framework for evaluating coral reef resilience to climate change |
title_sort |
scientific framework for evaluating coral reef resilience to climate change |
publisher |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107209 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-60.613,-60.613,-62.654,-62.654) |
geographic |
Hannah |
geographic_facet |
Hannah |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107209 971248265 |
op_rights |
MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 |
_version_ |
1768372745579528192 |