herbivory, connectivity, and ecosystem resilience response of a coral reef to a large-scale perturbation食草性、连通性和珊瑚礁的生态系统弹性响应一个大规模的扰动.pdfVIP

Herbivory, Connectivity, and Ecosystem Resilience: Response of a Coral Reef to a Large-Scale Perturbation 1 1,2 1,2 1 3 Thomas C. Adam *, Russell J. Schmitt , Sally J. Holbrook , Andrew J. Brooks , Peter J. Edmunds , Robert C. Carpenter3, Giacomo Bernardi4 1 Coastal Research Center, Marine Science Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America, 2 Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America, 3 Department of Biology, California State University Northridge, Northridge, California, United States of America, 4 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, United States of America Abstract Coral reefs world-wide are threatened by escalating local and global impacts, and some impacted reefs have shifted from coral dominance to a state dominated by macroalgae. Therefore, there is a growing need to understand the processes that affect the capacity of these ecosystems to return to coral dominance following disturbances, including those that prevent the establishment of persistent stands of macroalgae. Unlike many reefs in the Caribbean, over the last several decades, reefs around the Indo-Pacific island of Moorea, French Polynesia have consistently returned to coral dominance following major perturbations without shifting to a macroalgae-dominated state. Here, we present evidence of a rapid increase in populations of herbivorous fishes following the most recent perturbation, and show that grazing by these herbivores has prevented the establishment of macroalgae following near complete