研究人员解开了这个显而易见的悖论，并揭示了珊瑚礁扰动和热浪冲击之间的关系取决于生物组织的规模。研究人员表明，全球前所未有的持续时间(约 1年)的热带热浪最终导致89%的硬珊瑚覆盖面积的损失。在群落层面，损失取决于热浪前的群落结构，未受干扰的地点遭受的损失最大，这些地点主要发育以竞争为主的珊瑚。相比之下，在物种层面来看，随着当地干扰的加剧，单个珊瑚的存活率通常会下降。研究显示，在气候变化下预测的长时间热浪，将仍有赢家和输家，局部扰动也会损害甚至珊瑚物种在这种极端条件下的生存。
研究人员表示，珊瑚是即将受到气候变化-放大的海洋热浪的威胁。然而，该如何保护珊瑚礁尚不明确，因为那些没有当地人为干扰的珊瑚礁似乎与受到影响的珊瑚礁一样或更容易被热应力影响。
附：英文原文
Title: Transformation of coral communities subjected to an unprecedented heatwave is modulated by local disturbance
Author: Julia K. Baum, Danielle C. Claar, Kristina L. Tietjen, Jennifer M. T. Magel, Dominique G. Maucieri, Kim M. Cobb, Jamie M. McDevitt-Irwin
Issue&Volume: 2023-04-05
Abstract: Corals are imminently threatened by climate change–amplified marine heatwaves. However, how to conserve coral reefs remains unclear, since those without local anthropogenic disturbances often seem equally or more susceptible to thermal stress as impacted ones. We disentangle this apparent paradox, revealing that the relationship between reef disturbance and heatwave impacts depends upon the scale of biological organization. We show that a tropical heatwave of globally unprecedented duration (~1 year) culminated in an 89% loss of hard coral cover. At the community level, losses depended on pre-heatwave community structure, with undisturbed sites, which were dominated by competitive corals, undergoing the greatest losses. In contrast, at the species level, survivorship of individual corals typically declined as local disturbance intensified. Our study reveals both that prolonged heatwaves projected under climate change will still have winners and losers and that local disturbance can impair survival of coral species even under such extreme conditions.
DOI: abq5615
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq5615