Rising cover amid population density decline: the unstable demography of a reef-building coral
Monitoring habitat-forming species, such as scleractinian corals, is crucial for managing ecosystems and biodiversity. Yet for assessing population health, challenges remain in reconciling conventional areal coverage surveys with individual-based demographic techniques. Here, we explore both monitor...
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| Language: | English |
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The Royal Society
2025-07-01
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| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.250271 |
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| author | Liam Lachs Alex Ward Elizabeth A. Beauchamp Alasdair J. Edwards Renata Ferrari Will F. Figueira Yimnang Golbuu Adriana Humanes Helios M. Martinez Daniel R. Pygas Brigitte Sommer Eveline van der Steeg John C. Bythell James R. Guest |
| author_facet | Liam Lachs Alex Ward Elizabeth A. Beauchamp Alasdair J. Edwards Renata Ferrari Will F. Figueira Yimnang Golbuu Adriana Humanes Helios M. Martinez Daniel R. Pygas Brigitte Sommer Eveline van der Steeg John C. Bythell James R. Guest |
| author_sort | Liam Lachs |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Monitoring habitat-forming species, such as scleractinian corals, is crucial for managing ecosystems and biodiversity. Yet for assessing population health, challenges remain in reconciling conventional areal coverage surveys with individual-based demographic techniques. Here, we explore both monitoring approaches to characterize the population dynamics of the reef-building coral, Acropora cf. digitifera, on a West Pacific outer reef using photogrammetry reef mapping data spanning 5 years. Tracking 906 coral colonies showed that those exceeding approximately 10 cm diameter exhibit the fastest planar growth but also suffer excess mortality, possibly owing to increased structural vulnerability to dislodgement by wave energy or to other factors, such as disease or predation, that may be exacerbated by senescence. Area-controlled orthomosaic subsampling paired to integral projection modelling revealed a consistent decline in population density, as recruitment was insufficient to balance losses of larger colonies. Yet, total areal coverage and median colony size increased over the study, suggesting this disequilibrium population is on a recovery trajectory from past disturbance and heavily reliant on sporadic recruitment pulses not detected in our study. We find that conventional areal monitoring and demographic approaches can yield contrasting conclusions about population dynamics. Reconciling these differences for disequilibrium populations requires long-term demographic data over periods long enough to detect infrequent yet critical demographic events such as large post-disturbance recruitment events. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e47cd97e00ce421c95c1d7ae02c33047 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-e47cd97e00ce421c95c1d7ae02c330472025-08-20T03:25:59ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032025-07-0112710.1098/rsos.250271Rising cover amid population density decline: the unstable demography of a reef-building coralLiam Lachs0Alex Ward1Elizabeth A. Beauchamp2Alasdair J. Edwards3Renata Ferrari4Will F. Figueira5Yimnang Golbuu6Adriana Humanes7Helios M. Martinez8Daniel R. Pygas9Brigitte Sommer10Eveline van der Steeg11John C. Bythell12James R. Guest13School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKSchool of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKSchool of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKSchool of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKAustralian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville City, AustraliaSchool of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, AustraliaPalau International Coral Reef Centre, Koror, PalauSchool of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKSchool of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKSchool of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, AustraliaSchool of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, AustraliaSchool of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKSchool of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKSchool of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKMonitoring habitat-forming species, such as scleractinian corals, is crucial for managing ecosystems and biodiversity. Yet for assessing population health, challenges remain in reconciling conventional areal coverage surveys with individual-based demographic techniques. Here, we explore both monitoring approaches to characterize the population dynamics of the reef-building coral, Acropora cf. digitifera, on a West Pacific outer reef using photogrammetry reef mapping data spanning 5 years. Tracking 906 coral colonies showed that those exceeding approximately 10 cm diameter exhibit the fastest planar growth but also suffer excess mortality, possibly owing to increased structural vulnerability to dislodgement by wave energy or to other factors, such as disease or predation, that may be exacerbated by senescence. Area-controlled orthomosaic subsampling paired to integral projection modelling revealed a consistent decline in population density, as recruitment was insufficient to balance losses of larger colonies. Yet, total areal coverage and median colony size increased over the study, suggesting this disequilibrium population is on a recovery trajectory from past disturbance and heavily reliant on sporadic recruitment pulses not detected in our study. We find that conventional areal monitoring and demographic approaches can yield contrasting conclusions about population dynamics. Reconciling these differences for disequilibrium populations requires long-term demographic data over periods long enough to detect infrequent yet critical demographic events such as large post-disturbance recruitment events.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.250271recoverycoral reefsintermediate disturbance hypothesisintegral projection modellingphotogrammetrydemography |
| spellingShingle | Liam Lachs Alex Ward Elizabeth A. Beauchamp Alasdair J. Edwards Renata Ferrari Will F. Figueira Yimnang Golbuu Adriana Humanes Helios M. Martinez Daniel R. Pygas Brigitte Sommer Eveline van der Steeg John C. Bythell James R. Guest Rising cover amid population density decline: the unstable demography of a reef-building coral Royal Society Open Science recovery coral reefs intermediate disturbance hypothesis integral projection modelling photogrammetry demography |
| title | Rising cover amid population density decline: the unstable demography of a reef-building coral |
| title_full | Rising cover amid population density decline: the unstable demography of a reef-building coral |
| title_fullStr | Rising cover amid population density decline: the unstable demography of a reef-building coral |
| title_full_unstemmed | Rising cover amid population density decline: the unstable demography of a reef-building coral |
| title_short | Rising cover amid population density decline: the unstable demography of a reef-building coral |
| title_sort | rising cover amid population density decline the unstable demography of a reef building coral |
| topic | recovery coral reefs intermediate disturbance hypothesis integral projection modelling photogrammetry demography |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.250271 |
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