Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 17
Modelling Resilience and Phase Shifts in Coral
Reefs: Application of Different Modelling
Approaches
Andreas Kubicek and Esther Borell
Abstract Tropical coral reefs are among the most diverse habitats with great
ecological and economic importance. These highly dynamic ecosystems are fre-
quently subject to natural disturbance events (e.g. hurricanes) which can lead to
dramatic changes in reef properties if the systems' resilience is already reduced by
anthropogenic impacts such as increased levels of nutrients or over-fishing. Due to
their high complexity many relations in coral reef dynamics are still poorly under-
stood and ecological modelling becomes increasingly prominent as a tool to close
these knowledge gaps. This article gives an overview on different modelling
techniques that address the investigation of coral reef dynamics and discusses
advantages and disadvantages of respective applications.
17.1
Introduction
Tropical coral reefs are complex ecological habitats, that are the most diverse of all
marine ecosystems, with estimates of benthic and pelagic organisms ranging from
600,000 to more than 9 million species worldwide (Reaka-Kudla 1997). Scleracti-
nian corals (stony corals, Cnidaria, Anthozoa) are the main reef builders. They fix
calcium carbonate, which produces the majority of the habitat structure for other
reef organisms. Coral reefs are dynamic systems within a wider network of closely
interlinked habitats such as mangroves and seagrass beds, (Nagelkerken et al. 2002;
Mumby and Hastings 2008), which are frequently subjected to natural disturbances
(Connell 1997; Buddemeier and Smith 1999). However, the nature and temporal
pattern of disturbances have changed severely over the past few decades coinciding
with global climate change (Veron et al. 2009) and increasing anthropogenic
activities in coastal areas (Mora 2008), often exceeding the regenerative capacity
of reef systems (Bellwood et al. 2004).
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