Nutrient pollution enhances productivity and framework dissolution in algae- but not in coral-dominated reef communities
Date
2021
Authors
Roth, Florian
El-Khaled, Yusuf C
Karcher, Denis
Radecker, Nils
Carvalho, Susana
Duarte, Carlos M.
Silva, Luis
Calleja, Maria Ll.
Moran, Xose Anxelu G.
Jones, Burton H
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Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
Ecosystem services provided by coral reefs may be susceptible to the combined effects of benthic species shifts and anthropogenic nutrient pollution, but related field studies are scarce. We thus investigated in situ how dissolved inorganic nutrient enrichment, maintained for two months, affected community-wide biogeochemical functions of intact coral- and degraded algae-dominated reef patches in the central Red Sea. Results from benthic chamber incubations revealed 87% increased gross productivity and a shift from net calcification to dissolution in algae-dominated communities after nutrient enrichment, but the same processes were unaffected by nutrients in neighboring coral communities. Both community types changed from net dissolved organic nitrogen sinks to sources, but the increase in net release was 56% higher in algae-dominated communities. Nutrient pollution may, thus, amplify the effects of community shifts on key ecosystem services of coral reefs, possibly leading to a loss of structurally complex habitats with carbonate dissolution and altered nutrient recycling.
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Keywords
Eutrophication, Ecosystem functioning, Carbon and nitrogen cycles, ErosionPhase-shifts, Nutrient enrichment
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Source
Marine Pollution Bulletin
Type
Journal article
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Open Access
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Creative Commons Attribution License
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