Abstract
In 2019, a major coral bleaching event affected reefs worldwide, including marginal reefs within the Abrolhos Bank (16°40′–19°40′S, 39°10′–37°20′W), the largest and richest coral reefs in the South Atlantic. Between March and May 2019, this area was affected by the strongest heatwave since 1985. The health trajectories of the branching hydrocoral Millepora alcicornis and the endemic reef-building coral Mussismilia braziliensis were recorded during this thermal stress event. The degree heating week value reached its historical maximum (DHW 19.65), causing bleaching in 100% of Millepora alcicornis and 80% of Mussismilia braziliensis colonies. Bleached Millepora alcicornis were rapidly covered by cyanobacteria, followed by algal turfs and calcareous algae, leading to 90% mortality. Conversely, 90% of Mussismilia braziliensis colonies recovered to a healthy state after bleaching. The high post-bleaching recovery capacity and resistance to mortality of this massive reef-building coral suggests these marginal reefs can be resilient to thermal stress events, despite losing structural complexity due to high mortality of branching and less abundant hydrocorals.
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Data availability
The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Abrolhos National Marine Park staff, especially Berna Barbosa, Bárbara Figueiredo, Joyce Trindade, Erley Cruz, and volunteers for important fieldwork support. We also thank the editor and reviewers for their constructive comments.
Funding
This work was supported by the Project “GEFMar Áreas Marinhas Protegidas”. LCLF and FN acknowledge individual grants from GEFMar. GOL is grateful to a research productivity scholarship provided by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq grant number 310517/2019–2) and the Serrapilheira Institute (Serra-1708-15364; PI).
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All authors designed the study; LCLF, ACG, FN, FPMRF performed fieldwork; LCLF, FPMRF, and GOL contributed to infrastructure/material/technical support; LCLF, ACG, and GOL analyzed the data; LCLF, ACG, and GOL wrote the paper and all authors contributed to the manuscript.
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LCLF, ACG, FN, FPMRF, and GOL declare no conflicts of interest.
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This work was conducted with non-destructive methods under the permit SISBIO-ICMBio #70541 in accordance with all ethical guidelines authorized by the Brazilian Ministry of Environment and did not involve collection of animal tissue, individuals or experimentation
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Ferreira, L.C.L., Grillo, A.C., Repinaldo Filho, F.P.M. et al. Different responses of massive and branching corals to a major heatwave at the largest and richest reef complex in South Atlantic. Mar Biol 168, 54 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-021-03863-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-021-03863-6