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Depth gradients drive changes in early successional community composition and associated coral larvae settlement interactions

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Abstract

Depth gradients are known to drive patterns of adult and juvenile coral distribution, but the influence on early successional communities and subsequent interactions with coral larvae settlement are poorly understood. We studied how early successional communities changed across a 40 m depth gradient to test whether patterns of coral larvae settlement could be explained by changes in preferred settlement substrates. Light decreased 83-fold from 3 to 40 m, and coral settlement orientation switched from tile undersides at 3 and 8 m to tile topsides at 25 and 40 m as expected. Regardless of the reduction in light, community composition on the topsides of settlement tiles did not change across depths, being dominated by turf algae (49%), crustose coralline algae (CCA; 29%), and biofilmed tile (12%). In contrast, settlement tile undersides were dominated by coralline and fleshy algae at 3 m, transitioning to ascidians and bryozoans at 8 m and 25 m, and biofilmed tile (80%) at 40 m. Following multiple regression analysis from an initial 21 bio-physical variables (R2 = 0.34), the optimal reduced model for predicting coral settlement included just five variables and explained most of the variability (R2 = 0.29). CCA contributed an R2 of 0.14 to the model and was positively correlated with Acroporidae settlement, biofilmed tile contributed an R2 of 0.09 to the model and was negatively correlated with Acroporidae settlement, while the other predictors explained nominal model variance. As assessed using electivity indices, Acroporidae switched settlement preference from CCA at shallower depths to biofilmed tile in deeper environments. In addition to the influence of light on larval settlement behaviour as described in previous research, our results show that CCA also provide an important facilitator of coral settlement behaviour across depth gradients. However, as in shallow reefs environments, further work is required to elucidate whether changes occurring at a finer taxonomic resolution within the CCA community can help to further explain switches in coral larval settlement behaviour in light-limited environments.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Ryan Crossing, Dan Orr, Cindy Bessey and the crew of the Keshi Mer for assistance with fieldwork; Karl Forcey for assistance with the PAR data; and Mick Haywood for field assistance and comments on the manuscript. Two anonymous reviewers provided constructive comments that improved the quality of the work.

Funding

This research was financially supported as part of the BHP-CSIRO Ningaloo Outlook Marine Research Partnership.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Brisbane, Australia

    Christopher Doropoulos & Russell C. Babcock

  2. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Perth, Australia

    Damian P. Thomson, Melanie Trapon, Anna K. Cresswell & Joseph A. Turner

  3. School of Biological Sciences and Oceans Institute, University of Western Australia, Crawley, 6009, Australia

    Anna K. Cresswell, Joseph A. Turner & Russell C. Babcock

  4. Ocean Ecology Limited, Severnside Park, Epney, Gloucester, GL2 7LN, UK

    Joseph A. Turner

Authors
  1. Christopher Doropoulos
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  2. Damian P. Thomson
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  3. Melanie Trapon
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  4. Anna K. Cresswell
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  6. Russell C. Babcock
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Correspondence to Christopher Doropoulos.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of BHP or CSIRO.

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Permission to conduct the fieldwork and collect samples was granted by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. No special animal ethics approval was needed.

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Responsible Editor: S. Harii.

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Doropoulos, C., Thomson, D.P., Trapon, M. et al. Depth gradients drive changes in early successional community composition and associated coral larvae settlement interactions. Mar Biol 167, 59 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-020-3670-6

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