Prioritizing Key Resilience Indicators to Support Coral Reef Management in a Changing Climate

Managing coral reefs for resilience to climate change is a popular concept but has been difficult to implement because the empirical scientific evidence has either not been evaluated or is sometimes unsupportive of theory, which leads to uncertainty when considering methods and identifying priority...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 7; no. 8; p. e42884
Main Authors: McClanahan, Tim R., Donner, Simon D., Maynard, Jeffrey A., MacNeil, M. Aaron, Graham, Nicholas A. J., Maina, Joseph, Baker, Andrew C., Alemu I., Jahson B., Beger, Maria, Campbell, Stuart J., Darling, Emily S., Eakin, C. Mark, Heron, Scott F., Jupiter, Stacy D., Lundquist, Carolyn J., McLeod, Elizabeth, Mumby, Peter J., Paddack, Michelle J., Selig, Elizabeth R., van Woesik, Robert
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 29.08.2012
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Abundance
Algae
Algorithms
Analysis
Animals
Anthozoa - physiology
Biology
Climate
Climate adaptation
Climate Change
Conservation of Natural Resources - methods
Coral Reefs
Earth Sciences
Ecological effects
Ecology
Ecosystem
Ecosystem biology
Ecosystem dynamics
Ecosystems
Environment
Environmental aspects
Environmental changes
Environmental management
Environmental Monitoring
Environmental protection
Feasibility studies
Identification methods
Indonesia
Marine protected areas
Mortality
Protected areas
Recovery
Resilience
Resistance factors
Scaling
Science
Scientific papers
Seaweeds
Temperature
Temperature tolerance
Temperature variability
Wildlife conservation
Indonesia
Canada
Santa Barbara California
Fiji
Indian Ocean
Queensland Australia
United States > US
Florida
Australia
Great Barrier Reef
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Managing coral reefs for resilience to climate change is a popular concept but has been difficult to implement because the empirical scientific evidence has either not been evaluated or is sometimes unsupportive of theory, which leads to uncertainty when considering methods and identifying priority reefs. We asked experts and reviewed the scientific literature for guidance on the multiple physical and biological factors that affect the ability of coral reefs to resist and recover from climate disturbance. Eleven key factors to inform decisions based on scaling scientific evidence and the achievability of quantifying the factors were identified. Factors important to resistance and recovery, which are important components of resilience, were not strongly related, and should be assessed independently. The abundance of resistant (heat-tolerant) coral species and past temperature variability were perceived to provide the greatest resistance to climate change, while coral recruitment rates, and macroalgae abundance were most influential in the recovery process. Based on the 11 key factors, we tested an evidence-based framework for climate change resilience in an Indonesian marine protected area. The results suggest our evidence-weighted framework improved upon existing un-weighted methods in terms of characterizing resilience and distinguishing priority sites. The evaluation supports the concept that, despite high ecological complexity, relatively few strong variables can be important in influencing ecosystem dynamics. This is the first rigorous assessment of factors promoting coral reef resilience based on their perceived importance, empirical evidence, and feasibility of measurement. There were few differences between scientists' perceptions of factor importance and the scientific evidence found in journal publications but more before and after impact studies will be required to fully test the validity of all the factors. The methods here will increase the feasibility and defensibility of including key resilience metrics in evaluations of coral reefs, as well as reduce costs. Adaptation, marine protected areas, priority setting, resistance, recovery.
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Conceived and designed the experiments: TRM SDD JAM MAM NAJG JMM ACB JBA MB SJC ESD CME SFH SDJ CJL EM PJM MJP ERS RvW. Performed the experiments: TRM SDD JAM MAM NAJG JMM ACB JBA MB SJC ESD CME SFH SDJ CJL EM PJM MJP ERS RvW. Analyzed the data: TRM SDD JAM MAM NAJG JMM. Wrote the paper: TRM SDD JAM MAM NAJG JMM ACB JBA MB SJC ESD CME SFH SDJ CJL EM PJM MJP ERS RvW.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0042884