Award Abstract # 1026851
LTER: MCR II - Long-Term Dynamics of a Coral Reef Ecosystem

NSF Org: OCE
Division Of Ocean Sciences
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA
Initial Amendment Date: August 16, 2010
Latest Amendment Date: September 20, 2012
Award Number: 1026851
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: David Garrison
OCE
 Division Of Ocean Sciences
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: September 1, 2010
End Date: August 31, 2014 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $1,880,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $2,224,276.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2010 = $940,000.00
FY 2011 = $1,070,161.00

FY 2012 = $214,115.00
History of Investigator:
  • Russell Schmitt (Principal Investigator)
    schmitt@lifesci.ucsb.edu
  • Sally Holbrook (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Robert Carpenter (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Peter Edmunds (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of California-Santa Barbara
3227 CHEADLE HALL
SANTA BARBARA
CA  US  93106-0001
(805)893-4188
Sponsor Congressional District: 24
Primary Place of Performance: University of California-Santa Barbara
3227 CHEADLE HALL
SANTA BARBARA
CA  US  93106-0001
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
24
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): G9QBQDH39DF4
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): LONG TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Primary Program Source: 01001011DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01001112DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01001213DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 1306, 1316, 1650, 4444, 7218, 9117, 9169, 9177, 9251, EGCH
Program Element Code(s): 119500
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

Intellectual Merit: The Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) LTER is an interdisciplinary research and education program that was established in 2004, to explore the joint effects of climate and disturbance on the structure and function of coral reefs. The study area is the reef complex that surrounds the island of Moorea in French Polynesia. The initial focus of (MCR I) was to advance understanding of major controls of processes that modulate ecosystem function, shape community structure and diversity, and determine abundance and dynamics of constituent populations. The LTER Investigators build on this foundation by adapting a unifying conceptual framework (US LTER 2007) and developing a set of research themes to organize the MCR II research program and facilitate cross-site collaboration. Coral reef ecosystems appear especially vulnerable to changes in abiotic drivers associated with Global Climate Change (GCC). These arise from two mechanisms related to increasing concentrations of atmospheric CO2: rising seawater temperature due to greenhouse warming, and changing seawater chemistry known as Ocean Acidification (OA). A paradigm shift occurred within the past decade regarding the relative importance of these climate-related drivers to coral reefs. The focus initially was on rising seawater temperature because it triggered several large-scale, conspicuous coral bleaching (i.e., loss of the endosymbiont Symbiodinium) events. There now is widespread recognition that OA and its interaction with rising temperature have the potential to cause even more sweeping changes. These drivers occur against a backdrop of other press (e.g., fishing) and pulse (e.g., storms) perturbations. During MCR I, a brief outbreak of crown-of-thorns seastars (COTS) resulted in the death of virtually all coral on the fore reef of Moorea, bringing issues related to state change, resilience (recovery), interactive effects and indirect cascades to the forefront.

The fundamental question that the MRC LTER Team will address in MCR II is:
How do drivers that operate over different spatial and temporal scales interact to influence the structure and function of coral reef ecosystems?
The project incorporates three organizing themes: (i) interactive effects among drivers, (ii) indirect effects arising from structure-function linkages, and (iii) resilience and resistance in relation to structure-function feedbacks. The six goals of MCR II are to: (a) continue building long-term datasets on physical drivers, community dynamics and ecosystem processes; (b) maintain a long-term resilience experiment; (c) contribute to understanding of how Global Climate Change drivers will affect coral reefs and what factors influence resistance and resilience; (d) develop and test general ecological theory; (e) continue to improve our information management system to more fully meet the needs of the LTER network and broader scientific community; and (f) enhance our outreach components.

Broader Impacts: Coral reefs are not just ecologically important - they yield upwards of $375 billion annually in goods and services (most of it in the developing world) that are vulnerable to human activities and climate forcing. Hence this research has relevance and application to resource managers, policy makers and stakeholders worldwide. Broader impacts arising from the educational activities include postdoctoral mentoring, research that integrates undergraduate and graduate training, progress towards an ethnically diverse MCR student community, active participation of K-12 teachers in MCR research, incorporation of MCR findings in teaching curricula, participation of MCR faculty and graduate students in the Three Seas Program, and involvement of faculty and students from predominately undergraduate and minority-serving institutions. Additional impacts are realized by outreach efforts, including partnerships with three local schools that serve socio-economically disadvantaged and minority students, and with the Atitia Center on Moorea to reach Tahitians. While the information-rich web site will continue to be a primary outreach portal, the investigators plan to develop a partnership with another web-based entity to target middle-school students.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 123)
Adam, T. C.; "High quality habitat and facilitation ameliorate competitive effects of prior residents on new settlers." Oecologia , v.166 , 2011 , p.121-130
Adam, T. C.; "Mutualistic cleaner fish initiate trait-mediated indirect interactions on coral reefs by influencing the behavior of coral predators." Journal of Animal Ecology , v.81 , 2012 , p.692-700
Adam, T.C. "High quality habitat and facilitation ameliorate competitive effects of prior residents on new settlers" Oecologia , v.166 , 2011 , p.121-130
Adam, T.C. "Mutualistic cleaner fish initiate trait-mediated indirect interactions on coral reefs by influencing the behavior of coral predators" Journal of Animal Ecology , v.81 , 2012 , p.692-700
Adam, T.C., R.J. Schmitt, S.J. Holbrook, A.J. Brooks, P.J. Edmunds, R.C. Carpenter and G. Bernardi "Herbivory, connectivity and ecosystem resilience: response of a coral reef to a large-scale perturbation" PLoS One , v.6 , 2011 , p.e23717
Adam, T.C.;Schmitt, R. J.;Holbrook, S. J.;Brooks, A. J.;Edmunds, P.J.;Carpenter, R.C.;Bernardi, G.; "Herbivory, connectivity and ecosystem resilience: response of a coral reef to a large-scale perturbation" PLoS One , v.6 , 2011 , p.e23717
Adam, Thomas C. "Competition encourages cooperation: client fish receive higher-quality service when cleaner fish compete" Animal Behaviour , v.79 , 2010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.02.023 Citation Details
Ananthasubramaniam, B.;Nisbet, R. M.;Morse, D.;Doyle, F. J.; "Integrate-and-fire models of insolation-driven entrainment of broadcast spawning in corals." Theoretical Ecology , v.4 , 2011 , p.69-85
Ananthasubramaniam, B., R.M. Nisbet, D. Morse and F.J. Doyle "Integrate-and-fire models of insolation-driven entrainment of broadcast spawning in corals" Theoretical Ecology , v.4 , 2011 , p.69-85
Antoine D., D.A. Siegel, T. Kostadinov, S. Maritorena, N.B. Nelson, B. Gentili, V. Vellucci, and N. Guillocheau "Variability in optical particle backscattering in contrasting bio-optical oceanic regimes" Limnology and Oceanography , v.56 , 2011 , p.955-973
Arzberger, P.;Fountain, T.;Tilak, S.;Shin, P.;Ramirez, G.;Kratz, T.;Gries, C.;Holbrook, S.;Schmitt, R.;Brooks, A.;Seydel, K.;Carpenter, R.;Smith, J.;Martz, T.;Miller, M.;Wilson, J.; "The Open Source DataTurbine (OSDT) Android sensor pod: embedded cyberinfrastructure for smart buoy controllers and experiments in ocean acidification and limnology." Environmental Information Management Conference , 2011 , p.161
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 123)

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

Research Focus

The Moorea Coral Reef Long-Term Ecological Research site (MCR LTER) is an interdisciplinary, landscape-scale program that seeks to (1) advance understanding of the factors that influence the resilience of coral reef ecosystems and (2) to better forecast how coral reef ecosystems will be affected by slowly-changing environmental drivers.  The MCR LTER site consists of a coral reef complex that encircles the 37-mile perimeter of the island of Moorea in French Polynesia.

Coral reefs are among the most diverse and productive of all ecosystems and have immense ecological, social and economic value.  Unfortunately, the world's coral reefs are disappearing at an alarming rate due to the effects of coastal development, over-fishing and multiple factors associated with global climate change.  The Moorea Coral Reef LTER works to explore the effects of these external drivers on the fate of coral reefs and advance understanding to enable forecasts of the behavior of coral reef ecosystems.

Research Outcomes

Moorea Coral Reef LTER researchers found that rapid body and population growth of herbivorous parrotfishes following a major disturbance that killed most coral on the fore reef of Moorea prevented a massive invasion of seaweeds that would have precluded juvenile corals from recolonizing.  Young parrotfish first recruit to a nursery coral found in lagoons before moving offshore to the fore reef, which indicates that in addition to preventing over-fishing of key herbivores, protecting their nursery habitat is essential for maintaining reef resilience.

While it has long been known that the amount of coral on a reef influences the number and type of fishes present, studies by MCR LTER researchers show that the reverse often is true - the type of fishes present can markedly enhance the amount of coral on a reef.  They found that certain corals (acroporids) are more vulnerable to coral predators than others (pocilloporids), which helps explain why persistence and recovery of staghorn acropora, a major habitat for fishes and invertebrates, is governed by a territorial fish that protects its coral host from coral predators.  In addition to corals benefiting by protection by fish, other studies revealed that corals grew substantially better when colonized by fishes due to local fertilization by their nitrogenous waste.  MCR LTER studies of fish – coral interactions have revealed critical but previously unknown roles that fishes play in the resilience and dynamics of corals.

In another Moorea Coral Reef LTER study, researchers found that the more flexible corals are about their algal residents, the more sensitive they are to environmental changes.  The patterns show that coral generalists are some of the most environmentally sensitive.  The better scientists understand how corals respond to stress, the better we will be able to forecast and manage reef communities.  Similarly, MCR scientists found that the response of organisms on tropical reefs to ocean acidification may be species-specific, with some species of corals and coralline algae affected more than others.  They also discovered that more acidic oceans may lead to changes in patterns of biodiversity in a high-carbon dioxide world.

In addition, Moorea Coral Reef LTER scientists are developing biological models that help scale from genes to the whole community to describe the conditions under which abrupt community shifts from coral to seaweeds can occur and persist, to describe the response of coral to a warmer more acidic ocean, and to evaluate conditions promoting high coral cover in an increasingly disturbed world.

Education & Outreach

MCR LTER maintains a website designed to inform students and the public about the ocean, coral reef...

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