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. 2013;8(1):e54260.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054260. Epub 2013 Jan 24.

Dynamics of coral reef benthic assemblages of the Abrolhos Bank, eastern Brazil: inferences on natural and anthropogenic drivers

Ronaldo B Francini-Filho  1 , Ericka O C Coni, Pedro M Meirelles, Gilberto M Amado-Filho, Fabiano L Thompson, Guilherme H Pereira-Filho, Alex C Bastos, Douglas P Abrantes, Camilo M Ferreira, Fernando Z Gibran, Arthur Z Güth, Paulo Y G Sumida, Nara L Oliveira, Les Kaufman, Carolina V Minte-Vera, Rodrigo L Moura
Affiliations

Dynamics of coral reef benthic assemblages of the Abrolhos Bank, eastern Brazil: inferences on natural and anthropogenic drivers

Ronaldo B Francini-Filho et al. PLoS One. 2013.

Abstract

The Abrolhos Bank (eastern Brazil) encompasses the largest and richest coral reefs of the South Atlantic. Coral reef benthic assemblages of the region were monitored from 2003 to 2008. Two habitats (pinnacles' tops and walls) were sampled per site with 3-10 sites sampled within different reef areas. Different methodologies were applied in two distinct sampling periods: 2003-2005 and 2006-2008. Spatial coverage and taxonomic resolution were lower in the former than in the latter period. Benthic assemblages differed markedly in the smallest spatial scale, with greater differences recorded between habitats. Management regimes and biomass of fish functional groups (roving and territorial herbivores) had minor influences on benthic assemblages. These results suggest that local environmental factors such as light, depth and substrate inclination exert a stronger influence on the structure of benthic assemblages than protection from fishing. Reef walls of unprotected coastal reefs showed highest coral cover values, with a major contribution of Montastraea cavernosa (a sediment resistant species that may benefit from low light levels). An overall negative relationship between fleshy macroalgae and slow-growing reef-building organisms (i.e. scleractinians and crustose calcareous algae) was recorded, suggesting competition between these organisms. The opposite trend (i.e. positive relationships) was recorded for turf algae and the two reef-building organisms, suggesting beneficial interactions and/or co-occurrence mediated by unexplored factors. Turf algae cover increased across the region between 2006 and 2008, while scleractinian cover showed no change. The need of a continued and standardized monitoring program, aimed at understanding drivers of change in community patterns, as well as to subsidize sound adaptive conservation and management measures, is highlighted.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Map of the Abrolhos Bank, eastern Brazil, showing study sites and marine protected areas.
A - Itacolomis Reef (no-take zone: sites 1–3; multiple-use zone: sites 4–10), B - Timbebas Reef, C - Abrolhos Archipelago, D - Parcel dos Abrolhos Reef, E – Unprotected coastal reefs.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) of benthic assemblages (i.e. relative cover of different organisms) based on Bray–Curtis similarities.
Top panel: samples classified according to habitat; Bottom panel: samples classified according to reef areas. Reef areas: ARC – Archipelago, ITA-NT – Itacolomis Reef (no-take), ITA – Itacolomis Reef (multiple-use), PAB – Parcel dos Abrolhos (no-take), TIM – Timbebas Reef (no-take) and UNP – Unprotected coastal reefs.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Benthic cover (mean + SE) of the top five most abundant organisms in the Abrolhos Bank.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Benthic cover (mean + SE) of the top five most abundant reef corals (secleractinians) in the Abrolhos Bank.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Temporal dynamics in cover (mean ± SE) of benthic organisms in the Abrolhos Bank between 2006 and 2008.
Only organisms for which significant temporal variations were recorded are shown.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Canonical correspondence analysis plot showing: (left) relationship between independent variables (arrows) and reef areas and (right) distribution of benthic organisms in the two-dimensional ordination space.
Figure 7
Figure 7. Temporal dynamics in cover (mean ± SE) of benthic organisms in the Abrolhos Bank between 2003 and 2008.
The dashed line separates the two sampling periods in which different methodologies were used (see Materials and Methods). Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) results: *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001. Homogeneous groups are identified by equal letters.
Figure 8
Figure 8. Temporal dynamics in cover (mean ± SE) of benthic organisms in the Abrolhos Bank between 2003 and 2008 considering different reef areas and habitats.
Reef areas: ITA-NT – Itacolomis Reef (no-take), ITA – Itacolomis Reef (multiple-use), TIM – Timbebas Reef (no-take) and UNP – Unprotected coastal reefs. The dashed line separates the two sampling periods in which different methodologies were used (see Materials and Methods).
Figure 9
Figure 9. Temporal dynamics in cover (mean ± SE) of benthic organisms in the Abrolhos Bank between 2003 and 2008 considering different reef areas and habitats.
Reef areas: ITA-NT – Itacolomis Reef (no-take), ITA – Itacolomis Reef (multiple-use), TIM – Timbebas Reef (no-take) and UNP – Unprotected coastal reefs. The dashed line separates the two sampling periods in which different methodologies were used (see Materials and Methods).
Figure 10
Figure 10. Cover (mean + SE) of the reef coral Montastraea cavernosa in reef walls of the Abrolhos Bank (data pooled for samples obtained between 2006 and 2008).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

Financial support was provided by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico/Pro-Abrolhos Project (#420219/2005-6) and Conservation International (CI). This is a contribution of the CI's Marine Management Areas Science Program, Brazil Node, and Rede Abrolhos/SISBIOTA (MCT/CNPq/CAPES/FAPES). RLM, FLT and GMAF acknowledge individual grants from CNPq and FAPERJ. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.