The transformation of Caribbean coral communities since humans
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Ecology and Evolution
Publication Date
8-1-2021
Abstract
The mass die-off of Caribbean corals has transformed many of this region’s reefs to macroalgal-dominated habitats since systematic monitoring began in the 1970s. Although attributed to a combination of local and global human stressors, the lack of long-term data on Caribbean reef coral communities has prevented a clear understanding of the causes and consequences of coral declines. We integrated paleoecological, historical, and modern survey data to track the occurrence of major coral species and life-history groups throughout the Caribbean from the prehuman period to the present. The regional loss of Acropora corals beginning by the 1960s from local human disturbances resulted in increases in the occurrence of formerly subdominant stress-tolerant and weedy scleractinian corals and the competitive hydrozoan Millepora beginning in the 1970s and 1980s. These transformations have resulted in the homogenization of coral communities within individual countries. However, increases in stress-tolerant and weedy corals have slowed or reversed since the 1980s and 1990s in tandem with intensified coral bleaching and disease. These patterns reveal the long history of increasingly stressful environmental conditions on Caribbean reefs that began with widespread local human disturbances and have recently culminated in the combined effects of local and global change.
Volume
11
Issue
15
First Page
10098
Last Page
10118
DOI
10.1002/ece3.7808
Recommended Citation
Cramer, K., Donovan, M., Jackson, J., Greenstein, B., Korpanty, C., Cook, G., & Pandolfi, J. (2021). The transformation of Caribbean coral communities since humans. Ecology and Evolution, 11 (15), 10098-10118. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7808
E-ISSN
20457758