Award Abstract # 2224354
LTER: MCR IV: 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 12, 2022
Latest Amendment Date: July 21, 2025
Award Number: 2224354
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: Cynthia Suchman
csuchman@nsf.gov
 (703)292-2092
OCE
 Division Of Ocean Sciences
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: September 1, 2022
End Date: August 31, 2028 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $7,650,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $5,177,318.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2022 = $2,550,000.00
FY 2023 = $77,318.00

FY 2024 = $1,275,000.00

FY 2025 = $1,275,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Deron Burkepile (Principal Investigator)
    deron.burkepile@lifesci.ucsb.edu
  • Sally Holbrook (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Robert Carpenter (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Russell Schmitt (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Peter Edmunds (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Russell Schmitt (Former Principal Investigator)
  • Deron Burkepile (Former 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
Office of Research
Santa Barbara
CA  US  93106-2050
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
24
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): G9QBQDH39DF4
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): LONG TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH,
BIOLOGICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
Primary Program Source: 01002324DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01002425DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002728DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002223DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 9251, 1650, 8556, 8242, 8811, 1097, 108Z, 1389
Program Element Code(s): 119500, 165000
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

Coral reefs provide important benefits to society, from food to exceptional biodiversity to shoreline protection and recreation, but they are threatened by natural perturbations and human activities, including those causing global-scale changes. These pressures increasingly are causing coral reefs to undergo large, often abrupt, ecological changes where corals are being replaced by seaweeds or other undesirable organisms. Historically, the major agent of disturbance to coral reefs has been powerful storms, but in recent decades, episodes of mass coral bleaching from marine heat waves have become more frequent and severe as the temperature of ocean surface waters continues to rise. Coral reefs are further stressed by local human activities that cause nutrient pollution and deplete herbivorous fishes that control growth of seaweeds. Studying how coral reefs respond to these two types of disturbance under different levels of nutrient pollution and fishing provides essential information on what affects the ability of coral reefs to buffer environmental change and disturbances without collapsing to a persistent, degraded condition. The fundamental goals of the Moorea Coral Reef Long Term Ecological Research program (MCR LTER) are to understand how and why coral reefs change over time, to assess the consequences of these changes, and to contribute scientific knowledge needed to sustain coral reef ecosystems and the important societal services they provide. This research improves understanding and management of coral reefs, which benefits all groups concerned with the welfare of this ecologically, economically and culturally important ecosystem. In addition to academic communities, scientific findings are communicated to interested individuals, non-governmental organizations, island communities and governmental entities. These findings also are integrated into K-12, undergraduate, graduate and public education activities through a multi-pronged program that includes inquiry-based curricula, interactive and media-based public education programs, and internet-based resources. MCR?s research, training, education and outreach efforts all emphasize broadening participation in STEM fields and strengthening STEM literacy.

New research activities build on MCR LTER?s powerful foundation of long-term observations and broad ecological understanding of oceanic coral reefs to address the following core issues: How is the changing disturbance regime (recurrent heat waves in addition to cyclonic storms) altering the resilience of coral reefs, and what are the ecological consequences of altered resilience? Research activities are organized around a unifying framework that explicitly addresses how reef communities are affected by the nature and history of coral-killing disturbances, and how those responses to disturbance are influenced by the pattern of local human stressors. New studies answer three focal questions: (1) How do different disturbance types, which either remove (storms) or retain (heat waves) dead coral skeletons, affect community dynamics, abrupt changes in ecological state, and resilience? (2) How do local stressors interact with new disturbance regimes to create spatial heterogeneity in community dynamics, ecosystem processes, and spatial resilience? And (3) What attributes of coral and coral reef communities influence their capacity to remain resilient under current and future environmental conditions? These questions provide an unparalleled opportunity to test hypotheses and advance theory regarding ecological resilience and the causes and consequences of abrupt ecological change, which is broadly relevant across aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 83)
Leinbach, Sarah E. and Speare, Kelly E. and Strader, Marie E. "Reef habitats structure symbiotic microalgal assemblages in corals and contribute to differential heat stress responses" Coral Reefs , v.42 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-022-02316-w Citation Details
Kopecky, Kai L and Pavoni, Gaia and Nocerino, Erica and Brooks, Andrew J and Corsini, Massimiliano and Menna, Fabio and Gallagher, Jordan P and Capra, Alessandro and Castagnetti, Cristina and Rossi, Paolo and Gruen, Armin and Neyer, Fabian and Muntoni, Al "Quantifying the Loss of Coral from a Bleaching Event Using Underwater Photogrammetry and AI-Assisted Image Segmentation" Remote Sensing , v.15 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15164077 Citation Details
Kopecky, Kai L and Stier, Adrian C and Schmitt, Russell J and Holbrook, Sally J and Moeller, Holly V "Contrasting Impacts of Different Disturbance Types on Coral Reefs: Wave Disturbance vs. Coral Bleaching" The Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America , v.104 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1002/bes2.2061 Citation Details
Kopecky, Kai L. and Stier, Adrian C. and Schmitt, Russell J. and Holbrook, Sally J. and Moeller, Holly V. "Material legacies can degrade resilience: Structureretaining disturbances promote regime shifts on coral reefs" Ecology , v.104 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4006 Citation Details
Lauer, Matthew and Wencélius, Jean and Dawson, Paige and Holbrook, Sally J and Lester, Sarah E and Miller, Scott D and Nelson-Maney, Shannon and Rassweiler, Andrew and Schmitt, Russell J "Livelihood diversity and fishing skill during COVID-19 lockdowns in French Polynesia" Frontiers in Marine Science , v.11 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2024.1451270 Citation Details
Miller, Scott D. and Dubel, Alexandra K. and Adam, Thomas C. and Cook, Dana T. and Holbrook, Sally J. and Schmitt, Russell J. and Rassweiler, Andrew "Using machine learning to achieve simultaneous, georeferenced surveys of fish and benthic communities on shallow coral reefs" Limnology and Oceanography: Methods , v.21 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1002/lom3.10557 Citation Details
Moeller, Holly_V and Nisbet, Roger_M and Stier, Adrian_C "Cascading benefits of mutualists' predators on foundation species: A model inspired by coral reef ecosystems" Ecosphere , v.14 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4382 Citation Details
Muñoz-Maravilla, J David and Edmunds, Peter J "Three-dimensional printing can provide opportunities to promote coral recruitment on disturbed reefs" Bulletin of Marine Science , v.101 , 2025 https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2023.0131 Citation Details
Nelson, Craig E. and Wegley Kelly, Linda and Haas, Andreas F. "Microbial Interactions with Dissolved Organic Matter Are Central to Coral Reef Ecosystem Function and Resilience" Annual Review of Marine Science , v.15 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-042121-080917 Citation Details
Neumann, Kyle C. and La, Daniel and Yoo, Hyemin and Burkepile, Deron E. "Programmable Autonomous Water Samplers (PAWS): An inexpensive, adaptable and robust submersible system for time-integrated water sampling in freshwater and marine ecosystems" HardwareX , v.13 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2022.e00392 Citation Details
Pellowe, Kara_E and Durfort, Anaëlle and Burkepile, Deron_E and Mouillot, David and Lade, Steven_J and Rodil, ed., Ivan "Positive feedbacks in coastal reef social-ecological systems can maintain coral dominance" ICES Journal of Marine Science , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsae182 Citation Details
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 83)

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