Rapid Northward Spread of a Zooxanthellate Coral Enhanced by Artificial Structures and Sea Warming in the Western Mediterranean

PLOS ONE, Dec 2019

The hermatypic coral Oculina patagonica can drive a compositional shift in shallow water benthic marine communities in the northwestern Mediterranean. Here, we analyze a long-term, large-scale observational dataset to characterize the dynamics of the species' recent northward range shift along the coast of Catalonia and examine the main factors that could have influenced this spread. The variation in the distributional range of Oculina patagonica was examined by monitoring 223 locations including natural and artificial habitats along >400 km of coastline over the last 19 years (1992–2010). Abundance of the species increased from being present in one location in 1992 to occur on 19% of the locations in 2010, and exhibited an acceleration of its spreading over time driven by the join action of neighborhood and long-distance dispersal. However, the pattern of spread diverged between artificial and natural habitats. A short lag phase and a high slope on the exponential phase characterized the temporal pattern of spread on artificial habitats in contrast to that observed on natural ones. Northward expansion has occurred at the fastest rate (22 km year−1) reported for a coral species thus far, which is sufficiently fast to cope with certain climate warming predictions. The pattern of spread suggests that this process is mediated by the interplay of (i) the availability of open space provided by artificial habitats, (ii) the seawater temperature increase with the subsequent extension of the growth period, and (iii) the particular biological features of O. patagonica (current high growth rates, early reproduction, and survival to low temperature and in polluted areas). These results are indicative of an ongoing fundamental modification of temperate shallow water assemblages, which is consistent with the predictions indicating that the Mediterranean Sea is one of the most sensitive regions to global change.

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Rapid Northward Spread of a Zooxanthellate Coral Enhanced by Artificial Structures and Sea Warming in the Western Mediterranean

et al. (2013) Rapid Northward Spread of a Zooxanthellate Coral Enhanced by Artificial Structures and Sea Warming in the Western Mediterranean. PLoS ONE 8(1): e52739. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052739 Rapid Northward Spread of a Zooxanthellate Coral Enhanced by Artificial Structures and Sea Warming in the Western Mediterranean Eduard Serrano 0 Rafel Coma 0 Marta Ribes 0 Boris Weitzmann 0 Mara Garca 0 Enric Ballesteros 0 Ines Alvarez, University of Vigo, Spain 0 1 Centre d'Estudis Avanc ats de Blanes-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient ficas (CEAB-CSIC) , Blanes, Girona , Spain , 2 Institut de Cie`ncies del Mar-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient ficas (ICM-CSIC) , Barcelona , Spain The hermatypic coral Oculina patagonica can drive a compositional shift in shallow water benthic marine communities in the northwestern Mediterranean. Here, we analyze a long-term, large-scale observational dataset to characterize the dynamics of the species' recent northward range shift along the coast of Catalonia and examine the main factors that could have influenced this spread. The variation in the distributional range of Oculina patagonica was examined by monitoring 223 locations including natural and artificial habitats along .400 km of coastline over the last 19 years (1992-2010). Abundance of the species increased from being present in one location in 1992 to occur on 19% of the locations in 2010, and exhibited an acceleration of its spreading over time driven by the join action of neighborhood and long-distance dispersal. However, the pattern of spread diverged between artificial and natural habitats. A short lag phase and a high slope on the exponential phase characterized the temporal pattern of spread on artificial habitats in contrast to that observed on natural ones. Northward expansion has occurred at the fastest rate (22 km year21) reported for a coral species thus far, which is sufficiently fast to cope with certain climate warming predictions. The pattern of spread suggests that this process is mediated by the interplay of (i) the availability of open space provided by artificial habitats, (ii) the seawater temperature increase with the subsequent extension of the growth period, and (iii) the particular biological features of O. patagonica (current high growth rates, early reproduction, and survival to low temperature and in polluted areas). These results are indicative of an ongoing fundamental modification of temperate shallow water assemblages, which is consistent with the predictions indicating that the Mediterranean Sea is one of the most sensitive regions to global change. - Funding: Financial support for this work was provided by projects ENCHANGES (CGL2010-18466) and GRACCIE (C5D2007-00067) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, as well as European Communitys project CoCoNET (FP7 Grant-Agreement: 287844), and Departament de Medi Ambient and Age`ncia Catalana de lAigua (ACA) from the Generalitat de Catalunya. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Human activities (e.g., overfishing, trawling, coastal development, deployment of man-made infrastructures, transportation, use of fossil fuels and pollution) are currently affecting marine ecosystems worldwide [13]. Two main phenomena climate change and the introduction of alien species appear to be increasing the rate of change in species distribution boundaries, making it possible to examine such changes on a decade time-scale [47]. The distributions of a wide range of taxa are expanding poleward [6,8], and at the same time, coral reefs are undergoing rapid degradation due to increasing anthropogenic impacts, particularly climate change [912]. The poleward expansion of corals favored by increasing temperatures could compensate for the degradation of corals in their normal distribution range because of warming. However, it has been argued that coral species appear to be unable to disperse or adapt rapidly enough to cope with the current rate of change [1215], but see [1617]. The Mediterranean Sea is an optimal study site for early detection and characterization of the effects of global change on marine species ranges for several reasons. First, it is a semienclosed sea that is being affected by climate change at a faster rate than many other marine areas [18], and second, it is a hot spot for alien species, some of which are of tropical origin and have entered the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal [1921]. An understanding of the spread dynamics of alien species and the main processes determining this spread are crucial for predicting future changes in their distributions in the context of global environmental change [4,22]. Accurate predictions of the future distribution ranges of alien species that are able to change the structure and functioning of native ec (...truncated)


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Eduard Serrano, Rafel Coma, Marta Ribes, Boris Weitzmann, María García, Enric Ballesteros. Rapid Northward Spread of a Zooxanthellate Coral Enhanced by Artificial Structures and Sea Warming in the Western Mediterranean, PLOS ONE, 2013, Volume 8, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052739