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Localized inshore warming, acidification, and elevated particulate organic matter across a coupled mangrove, seagrass, and coral reef ecosystem in La Parguera, Puerto Rico

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Abstract

Global declines in mangroves, seagrasses, and corals threaten the provisioning of ecosystem services to coastal communities. However, potential feedbacks between these ecosystems are poorly understood owing to a lack of studies exploring functional links between these frequently coupled nearshore tropical ecosystems. To better understand these links, we sampled seawater temperature, salinity, and pH in addition to particulate organic carbon, particulate organic nitrogen, and their respective stable isotope composition (δ13C and δ15N) monthly from July 2018 to June 2019 at sites ranging from inshore to offshore in La Parguera Natural Reserve, Puerto Rico. We observed persistent, year-round warmer, more acidic, and higher particulate organic matter seawater at the most inshore Bioluminescent Bay station compared to sites further offshore. Particulate organic carbon values ranged from a maximum of 764 mg/m3 at the most inshore station to a minimum of 53.96 mg/m3 at the most offshore station while particulate organic nitrogen ranged from 166 mg/m3 at the most inshore station to 6.39 mg/m3 at the most offshore station. Biogeochemical variability across spatial scales largely followed gradients in biological and physical controls, with limited differences between the more offshore coral reef sites and the most intense biogeochemical modification occurring in the shallowest and most nearshore stations. Limited temporal variability was observed for most parameters except for seasonal variations in temperature, salinity, and pH. Particulate organic matter stable isotope composition were slightly enriched at inshore stations and suggested a mixture of primarily marine allochthonous and autochthonous organic matter sources. The importance of heterotrophy for coral resilience to warming and acidification suggests this localized nutrition-rich albeit warmer and acidified waters in nearshore mangrove and seagrass ecosystems is an important functional link to nearshore corals with the potential to modulate coral resilience to ocean warming and acidification.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System (CARICOOS) for funding and logistical support throughout the project. We also thank Luis Rodríguez, Camille Berrocal, Khrystall Ramos, and Yeidee Alvarado for their help during special sampling events. CM-R was supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Education Educational Partnership Program award NA16SEC4810006-NCAS-M granted to RAA. All data and code are publicly available on Zenodo via https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8360492. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their detailed and constructive feedback that greatly improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez, Mayagüez, PR, USA

    Carla L. Mejias-Rivera, Roy A. Armstrong, Erick García-Troche & Travis A. Courtney

  2. Environmental Protection Agency Atlantic Coastal Environmental Sciences Division, Narragansett, RI, USA

    Sawyer Balint, Richard A. McKinney & Autumn Oczkowski

  3. Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System (CARICOOS), Lajas, PR, USA

    Julio M. Morell

Authors
  1. Carla L. Mejias-Rivera
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  2. Roy A. Armstrong
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  3. Sawyer Balint
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  4. Erick García-Troche
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  5. Richard A. McKinney
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  6. Julio M. Morell
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  7. Autumn Oczkowski
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  8. Travis A. Courtney
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carla L. Mejias-Rivera.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the US Environmental Protection Agency. Any mention of trade names, products, or services does not imply an endorsement by the US Government or the US Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA does not endorse any commercial products, services, or enterprises. EPA equipment was used for this research, but EPA did not operate or perform the analysis with the associated equipment. The research presented was not performed or funded by EPA and was not subject to EPA’s quality system requirements.

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Mejias-Rivera, C.L., Armstrong, R.A., Balint, S. et al. Localized inshore warming, acidification, and elevated particulate organic matter across a coupled mangrove, seagrass, and coral reef ecosystem in La Parguera, Puerto Rico. Coral Reefs 42, 1313–1327 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-023-02435-y

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