Abstract
Wakatobi National Park (WNP), located in the heart of the Coral Triangle in Indonesia, is one of the most biodiverse marine habitats on Earth. Coral ecosystems within the park, however, are threatened by anthropogenic stressors such as coral diseases, coral mining, blast fishing, invasive species and pollution. This led the Government of Indonesia to establish marine protected zones (MPZs) over 2% of the WNP, but the efficiency of these MPZs to support coral reef resilience against anthropogenic disturbances remains poorly documented. Here this gap was filled by evaluating coral connectivity within the WNP at the sub-reef scale and assessing how the MPZs contribute to coral resilience on other reefs within the WNP. The larval dispersal of the coral species Acropora millepora and Acropora gemmifera were simulated during eight spawning seasons in 2014–2021 using a multi-scale ocean model that achieves a local resolution finer than 100 m. The coral connectivity matrices were then analysed using Google's PageRank algorithm to identify the sub-reefs that act as major sources and sinks, as well as sub-reefs best suited for protection and restoration planning. The interannual and interspecific variability of these indicators were assessed and identified sub-reefs that were consistently ranked high for all eight years and for both species. Both El Niño and La Niña events were found leading to a significant increase in larval exchanges across the WNP for both species. Overall, the results suggest that, under the current WNP zoning, there is limited overlap between MPZs and the reefs identified as best candidates for reef protection and restoration based on acroporid larval connectivity. The current restoration site of Ou Tooge was unlikely found to be a significant larval supplier to adjacent reefs in the WNP. Based on the high-resolution coral connectivity analysis, a list of reefs that were proposed should be prioritised for maximising the broad-scale impact of coral reef conservation and restoration planning in the WNP.
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Acknowledgements
Computational resources have been provided by the supercomputing facilities of the Université catholique de Louvain (CISM/UCLouvain) and the Consortium des Equipements de Calcul Intensif en Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles (CECI) funded by the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique de Belgique (F.R.S.-FNRS) under convention 2.5020.11.
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Appendix
Additional result analysis
This appendix offers supplementary data that reinforce the analysis of the results discussed in the main article. The included figure and data serve to enhance the comprehensive understanding of the phenomena under investigation Figs.
The computational domain, which covers the area of interest, was discretised with an unstructured mesh. The mesh resolution was the highest (50 m) around the Wakatobi islands, over the reefs, and near the tide gauge at Baubau. It decreased to 12 km in the open ocean, far from the region of interest
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Time-series plot of observed (black) and predicted (red) sea surface elevations at the Baubau station, from 18 March to 8 April 2020
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Observed and modelled amplitude (left axis) and phase (right axis) of the most energetic (principal) tidal constituents
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The dynamics of the ratio between total larval exchanges and total larval releases in the region of interest for two species, A. gemmifera and A. millepora, were compared to the Oceanic Niño Index from 2014 to 2021. The analysis revealed a significant increase in the ratio during strong El Niño events (2015) and La Niña events (2021). The red dashed lines indicate the thresholds of the Oceanic Niño Index for the occurrence of El Niño (0.5) and La Niña (− 0.5)
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Faryuni, I.D., Saint-Amand, A., Dobbelaere, T. et al. Assessing coral reef conservation planning in Wakatobi National Park (Indonesia) from larval connectivity networks. Coral Reefs 43, 19–33 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-023-02443-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-023-02443-y