Local management action to address coral-reef stressors can improve reef health and mitigate the effects of global climate change. Coastal development and runoff lead to sedimentation, which directly impacts coral recruitment, growth, mortality, and the ecosystem services that coral reefs provide. Decision making for reef resilience in the face of global and local stressors requires information on thresholds for management action. In response to needs identified by reef managers, we plan to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis that will explore the effects of both deposited and suspended sediment on corals to identify single and interacting stressor thresholds. We will identify levels of sediment exposure (i.e., concentration, duration, and frequency) that cause adverse physical, physiological, behavioral, developmental, and ecological responses in coral and describe geographic and taxonomic patterns in these responses. Our ultimate goal is to provide managers with sediment exposure thresholds that can be expected to cause these responses. Our systematic review will synthesize available evidence on the effects of suspended and deposited sediment on corals. The research questions were formulated with an advisory team to support management decisions concerning local reef stressors in waters under U.S. federal jurisdiction. While the advisory team is most concerned with reefs adjacent to U.S. Pacific Islands, our review will include studies that examine reef-building coral species around the world. We will search online databases and grey literature to obtain a list of potential studies, assess their relevance, and critically appraise them for validity and risk of bias. Provided enough data can be extracted from relevant experimental studies, we will conduct meta-analyses that examine changes in coral health and survival in response to suspended and/or deposited sediment, with the goal to define sediment thresholds for reef managers. If enough data are available from within the U.S. Pacific Islands, we will construct region-, site-, and/or species-specific thresholds to improve local management.

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沉积物暴露如何影响珊瑚？系统的审查协议

针对珊瑚礁压力源的地方管理行动可以改善珊瑚礁健康状况，并减轻全球气候变化的影响。沿海的发展和径流导致沉积，直接影响珊瑚的吸收，生长，死亡率和珊瑚礁提供的生态系统服务。面对全球和当地压力源的珊瑚礁复原力决策需要有关管理行动阈值的信息。为响应礁石管理者确定的需求，我们计划进行系统的审查和荟萃分析，以探讨沉积沉积物和悬浮沉积物对珊瑚的影响，从而确定单一的相互作用的压力阈值。我们将确定导致不利的生理，生理，行为，发育，珊瑚的生态响应，并描述这些响应的地理和生物分类模式。我们的最终目标是为管理人员提供可能引起这些反应的沉积物暴露阈值。我们的系统综述将综合有关悬浮和沉积沉积物对珊瑚影响的现有证据。研究问题由一个咨询小组制定，以支持有关美国联邦管辖范围内水域中当地礁石压力源的管理决策。虽然咨询团队最关注与美国太平洋群岛相邻的珊瑚礁，但我们的审查将包括研究全球珊瑚礁建造珊瑚物种的研究。我们将搜索在线数据库和灰色文献，以获得潜在研究的列表，评估其相关性，并严格评估它们的有效性和存在偏见的风险。如果可以从相关的实验研究中提取到足够的数据，我们将进行荟萃分析，以检查响应悬浮和/或沉积沉积物的珊瑚健康和生存的变化，目的是为礁石管理者定义沉积物阈值。如果可以从美国太平洋群岛中获得足够的数据，我们将构建区域，站点和/或物种特定的阈值，以改善本地管理。