Long-lived groupers require structurally stable reefs in the face of repeated climate change disturbances

• Published in: Coral reefs Vol. 33; no. 2; pp. 289 - 302
• Main Authors: Karkarey, R., Kelkar, N., Lobo, A. Savio, Alcoverro, T., Arthur, R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.06.2014; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Abundance; Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Archipelagoes; Availability; Benthos; Biological and medical sciences; Biomass; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Climate change; Climatology. Bioclimatology. Climate change; Complexity; Coral bleaching; Coral reefs; Depth; Disturbances; Earth, ocean, space; El Nino; El Nino phenomena; Epinephelus; Exact sciences and technology; Exposure; External geophysics; Fish; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Habitat availability; Habitats; Life Sciences; Life span; Marine; Marine ecology; Marine fishes; Meteorology; Oceanography; Recovery; Recovery of function; Sea water ecosystems; Serranidae; Southern Oscillation; Species richness; Stability; Storms; Structural stability; Synecology; Whitefish; ISW, India, Lakshadweep; ISW, Arabian Sea; Coral reefs; Natural refugia; Structural change; Habitat stability; Groupers; Stability; Coral reef; Longevity; Perturbation; Dynamical climatology; Climate change; Habitat; Face
• ISSN: 0722-4028; 1432-0975
• DOI: 10.1007/s00338-013-1117-y

Benthic recovery from climate-related disturbances does not always warrant a commensurate functional recovery for reef-associated fish communities. Here, we examine the distribution of benthic groupers (family Serranidae) in coral reef communities from the Lakshadweep archipelago (Arabian Sea) in response to structural complexity and long-term habitat stability. These coral reefs that have been subject to two major El Niño Southern Oscillation-related coral bleaching events in the last decades (1998 and 2010). First, we employ a long-term (12-yr) benthic-monitoring dataset to track habitat structural stability at twelve reef sites in the archipelago. Structural stability of reefs was strongly driven by exposure to monsoon storms and depth, which made deeper and more sheltered reefs on the eastern aspect more stable than the more exposed (western) and shallower reefs. We surveyed groupers (species richness, abundance, biomass) in 60 sites across the entire archipelago, representing both exposures and depths. Sites were selected along a gradient of structural complexity from very low to high. Grouper biomass appeared to vary with habitat stability with significant differences between depth and exposure; sheltered deep reefs had a higher grouper biomass than either sheltered shallow or exposed (deep and shallow) reefs. Species richness and abundance showed similar (though not significant) trends. More interestingly, average grouper biomass increased exponentially with structural complexity, but only at the sheltered deep (high stability) sites, despite the availability of recovered structure at exposed deep and shallow sites (lower-stability sites). This trend was especially pronounced for long-lived groupers (life span >10 yrs). These results suggest that long-lived groupers may prefer temporally stable reefs, independent of the local availability of habitat structure. In reefs subject to repeated disturbances, the presence of structurally stable reefs may be critical as refuges for functionally important, long-lived species like groupers.