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Associational refuges among corals mediate impacts of a crown-of-thorns starfish Acanthaster planci outbreak

Indirect positive interactions in communities

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Abstract

Interactions among coral populations can moderate the impact of coral predator outbreaks, enhancing community resilience and recovery. This study used predator-exclusion cages and neighbour removals in a field experiment to test how indirect interactions between populations of three coral taxa, Acropora, Pocillopora, and Porites, influenced their survival during an outbreak of the crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci, in Moorea, French Polynesia. High densities of corals enhanced survival by generating associational refuges: physical structures that impeded Acanthaster and protected corals, and by simple density-dependent prey dilution that reduced predation rates. Acanthaster showed feeding preferences, resulting in varying intensities of predation on corals, which (1) influenced the type and strength of the associational refuge among corals and (2) resulted in significant loss of the competitive dominants to the benefit of the competitive inferiors. The result was a set of indirect positive interactions (IPIs) that prevented Acanthaster from eradicating Acropora and may have enhanced Porites, a relatively weak competitor among corals. IPIs probably play a key role in many ecosystems, especially in coral reefs in which corals act as engineer species, to reduce impacts of perturbations and enhance community resilience. This study illustrates the importance of IPIs in community regulation with a new conceptual model.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Pauline Bosserelle, as well as to many volunteers from CRIOBE and Planète Urgence for assistance in the field, and to three anonymous reviewers for their critical comments on this manuscript. This study was supported by a grant from Société Polynésienne des Eaux et de l’Assainissement and Planète Urgence. H. Lenihan was supported by NSF (OCE0417412) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. This is another publication of the Moorea Coral Reef LTER.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. USR 3278 CNRS-EPHE, Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l’Environnement, BP 1013, 98729, Papetoai, Moorea, French Polynesia

    Mohsen Kayal, Cédric Pau & Lucie Penin

  2. UMR 5244 CNRS-EPHE-UPVD, Biologie et Ecologie Tropicale et Méditerranéenne, Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, 66860, Perpignan Cedex, France

    Mohsen Kayal, Cédric Pau, Lucie Penin & Mehdi Adjeroud

  3. Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106-5131, USA

    Hunter S. Lenihan

  4. ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, 4811, Townsville, QLD, Australia

    Lucie Penin

  5. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Unité 227 CoRéUs2 “Biocomplexité des écosystèmes coralliens de l’Indo-Pacifique”, BP A5, 98848, Nouméa Cedex, New Caledonia

    Mehdi Adjeroud

Authors
  1. Mohsen Kayal
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  2. Hunter S. Lenihan
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  3. Cédric Pau
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  4. Lucie Penin
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  5. Mehdi Adjeroud
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohsen Kayal.

Additional information

Communicated by Biology Editor Dr. Hugh Sweatman.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

ESM 1 Figure showing the density of Acanthaster planci on study site in Moorea, French Polynesia (PDF 11 kb)

338_2011_763_MOESM2_ESM.pdf

ESM 2 Protocol and results of the tests on the impact of caging treatments on light, mass water exchange, and sedimentation (PDF 13 kb)

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Kayal, M., Lenihan, H.S., Pau, C. et al. Associational refuges among corals mediate impacts of a crown-of-thorns starfish Acanthaster planci outbreak. Coral Reefs 30, 827–837 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-011-0763-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-011-0763-1

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