Quantifying spatial gradients in coral reef benthic communities using multivariate dispersion
Tropical coral reefs are dynamic, disturbance-driven ecosystems that are heterogeneous across space and time, partly owing to gradients in cross-scale human impacts and natural environmental factors. Localized management interventions that strive to maintain the long-term persistence and function of...
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The Royal Society
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
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| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.241254 |
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| author | Alice K. Lawrence Adel Heenan Gareth J. Williams |
| author_facet | Alice K. Lawrence Adel Heenan Gareth J. Williams |
| author_sort | Alice K. Lawrence |
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| description | Tropical coral reefs are dynamic, disturbance-driven ecosystems that are heterogeneous across space and time, partly owing to gradients in cross-scale human impacts and natural environmental factors. Localized management interventions that strive to maintain the long-term persistence and function of coral reefs need to be informed by how and why reef habitats vary. Using the ‘multivariate dispersion’ metric, a statistical approach to measure ecological community variability, we quantified spatial gradients in coral reef benthic communities around Tutuila Island in American Samoa, central South Pacific. Benthic communities with low, medium and high dispersion each had distinct and consistent underlying benthic community characteristics. Low dispersion sites were consistently characterized by high hard coral cover, medium dispersion sites were generally dominated by crustose coralline algae, while high dispersion sites were dominated by turf and fleshy coralline algae. Variability in hard coral and turf algal cover explained 42% of the underlying variation in benthic community dispersion across sites, while site-level gradients in human impacts and environmental factors did not correlate well with variations in benthic community dispersion. The metric should be further tested on temporal data to determine whether it can summarize complex community changes in response to and following acute disturbance. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4c018b120c7e47509fb8d49127bcff96 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-4c018b120c7e47509fb8d49127bcff962025-08-20T01:51:24ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032025-04-0112410.1098/rsos.241254Quantifying spatial gradients in coral reef benthic communities using multivariate dispersionAlice K. Lawrence0Adel Heenan1Gareth J. Williams2School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Menai Bridge, Anglesey LL59 5AB, UKSchool of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Menai Bridge, Anglesey LL59 5AB, UKSchool of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Menai Bridge, Anglesey LL59 5AB, UKTropical coral reefs are dynamic, disturbance-driven ecosystems that are heterogeneous across space and time, partly owing to gradients in cross-scale human impacts and natural environmental factors. Localized management interventions that strive to maintain the long-term persistence and function of coral reefs need to be informed by how and why reef habitats vary. Using the ‘multivariate dispersion’ metric, a statistical approach to measure ecological community variability, we quantified spatial gradients in coral reef benthic communities around Tutuila Island in American Samoa, central South Pacific. Benthic communities with low, medium and high dispersion each had distinct and consistent underlying benthic community characteristics. Low dispersion sites were consistently characterized by high hard coral cover, medium dispersion sites were generally dominated by crustose coralline algae, while high dispersion sites were dominated by turf and fleshy coralline algae. Variability in hard coral and turf algal cover explained 42% of the underlying variation in benthic community dispersion across sites, while site-level gradients in human impacts and environmental factors did not correlate well with variations in benthic community dispersion. The metric should be further tested on temporal data to determine whether it can summarize complex community changes in response to and following acute disturbance.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.241254American Samoabenthic heterogeneityBetadispercommunity variabilitycoral life historycoral species |
| spellingShingle | Alice K. Lawrence Adel Heenan Gareth J. Williams Quantifying spatial gradients in coral reef benthic communities using multivariate dispersion Royal Society Open Science American Samoa benthic heterogeneity Betadisper community variability coral life history coral species |
| title | Quantifying spatial gradients in coral reef benthic communities using multivariate dispersion |
| title_full | Quantifying spatial gradients in coral reef benthic communities using multivariate dispersion |
| title_fullStr | Quantifying spatial gradients in coral reef benthic communities using multivariate dispersion |
| title_full_unstemmed | Quantifying spatial gradients in coral reef benthic communities using multivariate dispersion |
| title_short | Quantifying spatial gradients in coral reef benthic communities using multivariate dispersion |
| title_sort | quantifying spatial gradients in coral reef benthic communities using multivariate dispersion |
| topic | American Samoa benthic heterogeneity Betadisper community variability coral life history coral species |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.241254 |
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