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Coral recovery may not herald the return of fishes on damaged coral reefs

  • Global change ecology - Original research
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Abstract

The dynamic nature of coral reefs offers a rare opportunity to examine the response of ecosystems to disruption due to climate change. In 1998, the Great Barrier Reef experienced widespread coral bleaching and mortality. As a result, cryptobenthic fish assemblages underwent a dramatic phase-shift. Thirteen years, and up to 96 fish generations later, the cryptobenthic fish assemblage has not returned to its pre-bleach configuration. This is despite coral abundances returning to, or exceeding, pre-bleach values. The post-bleach fish assemblage exhibits no evidence of recovery. If these short-lived fish species are a model for their longer-lived counterparts, they suggest that (1) the full effects of the 1998 bleaching event on long-lived fish populations have yet to be seen, (2) it may take decades, or more, before recovery or regeneration of these long-lived species will begin, and (3) fish assemblages may not recover to their previous composition despite the return of corals.

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Acknowledgments

We thank: J. Ackerman, H. Larson, P. Munday, P. Osmond, and R. Winterbottom for their help with collections and/or fish identifications; P. Marshall for access to coral data; 800+ JCU MB3160 students for enthusiastic goby picking and sorting; the staff of Orpheus Island Research Station for field support; the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, National Parks, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Primary Industries for permission to collect; and two anonymous reviewers and colleagues in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies for helpful comments or discussions. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (DRB).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    David R. Bellwood, Martial Depczynski, Alonso González-Cabello, Andrew S. Hoey, Carine D. Lefèvre & Jennifer K. Tanner

  2. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    David R. Bellwood, Andrew H. Baird, Alonso González-Cabello, Andrew S. Hoey, Carine D. Lefèvre & Jennifer K. Tanner

  3. Australian Institute of Marine Science, UWA Oceans Institute, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Martial Depczynski

  4. Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Andrew S. Hoey

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  1. David R. Bellwood
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Correspondence to David R. Bellwood.

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Communicated by Jeff Shima.

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Bellwood, D.R., Baird, A.H., Depczynski, M. et al. Coral recovery may not herald the return of fishes on damaged coral reefs. Oecologia 170, 567–573 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2306-z

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