Spatial distribution of crustaceans associated with shallow soft‐bottom habitats in a coral reef lagoon

The ecology and diversity of the shallow soft‐bottom areas adjacent to coral reefs are still poorly known. To date, the few studies conducted in these habitats dealing with macroinvertebrate fauna have focused on their abundance spatial patterns at high taxonomic levels. Thus, some aspects important to evaluate the importance and vulnerability of these habitats, such as species diversity or the degree of habitat specialization, have often been overlooked. In this study we compared the crustacean assemblages present in four different habitats at Magoodhoo Island coral reef lagoon (Maldives): coral rubble, sandy areas and two different seagrass species (Thalassia hemprichii and Cymodocea sp.). Forty‐two different crustacean species belonging to 30 families and four orders were found. ‘Site’ was a significant factor in all of the statistical analyses, indicating that tropical soft‐bottom habitats can be highly heterogeneous, even at a spatial scale between tens and hundreds of meters. Although traditionally it has been considered that seagrass beds host greater species diversity and abundance of organisms than adjacent unvegetated habitats, no differences in the univariate measures of fauna (abundance of organisms, number of species and Shannon diversity) were observed among habitats. However, sandy areas, coral rubble and seagrass beds exhibited different species composition of crustacean communities. The percentage of taxa considered as potential habitat specialists was 27% and the number of species exclusively occurring in one habitat was especially high in seagrass beds. Thus, degradation of this vegetated habitat would result in a great loss of biodiversity in tropical shallow soft‐bottom habitats.     

我国生物海岸修复现状及展望

介绍了我国生物海岸的分布现状,总结出以柽柳为代表的灌木群落、以芦苇为代表的草本群落、以红树林为代表的常绿灌木与乔木群落以及珊瑚礁是我国海岸带四类典型生物群落。生物海岸的生态、旅游、渔牧和科研价值极高,但从20世纪50年代起,由于对生物海岸的价值认识不足,我国生物海岸被大量破坏,主要破坏原因可归纳为:1)土地功能转换式开发引起的红树林和草本岸线破坏;2)过度采挖及环境恶化引起的珊瑚礁破坏;3)土壤盐碱化引起的柽柳群落退化。从20世纪80年代至今,一系列海岸带保护与生态修复的举措陆续实施,减缓了我国海岸带生态加速破坏的态势,较好地保护和修复了我国生物海岸,其中最重要的举措包括:1)设立生物海岸湿地公园和自然保护区;2)建立健全生物海岸保护相关法律体系;3)开展典型生物海岸相关研究与修复技术探索;4)推进并实施"十三五"海洋规划中三大海洋重点工程。为了解我国海岸带生态修复的现状,于2017-2018年期间,分别在山东日照、潍坊,上海,广东汕头、汕尾以及徐闻进行了实地调研和测量,调研结果表明:在政策支持下,调研地区的生物海岸得到了很好的保护和修复,推进我国海岸带生态修复步入快速发展阶段。基于调研成果,指出我国在海岸带生态修复中应特别重视的一些问题。     

The Role of Isopod Crustaceans in the Reef Crest Community at Carrie Bow Cay, Belize

Abstract. The species composition and numbers of specimens of isopod crustaceans from the rubble of a Belizean reef crest were obtained. Four sets of 30 samples were taken from three rubble zones (rubble with algal turf, rubble between Thalassia plants, and pure rubble), in four different collecting periods. Twenty-four species of isopods were identified, sexed and counted. By means of a Likelihood Ratio Chi-square Contingency Table Analysis the presence of 13 species was shown to be positively correlated with habitat, 15 species with season, and nine species with habitat and season combined. From the spread of total numbers and of ovigerous females it is proposed that the isopods may be grouped into three patterns: a) those present and breeding in the reef crest rubble throughout the year, i. e. stress-tolerant species; b) those showing a breeding peak in summer and a population decrease in winter-spring, i. e. opportunist species; and c) those showing a breeding peak in the fall, and a second peak in spring, and a decrease or complete avoidance of the habitat, especially by ovigerous females, in the summer. The diversity of the Belizean reef crest isopod fauna is compared with the published report of the isopod fauna of a coral reef in Madagascar. Several similarities in composition are noted. The multiplicity of microhabitats is invoked as a possible explanation for the relatively high diversity of anthuridean isopods in coral reefs.     

Inhibition of Fertilization and Larval Metamorphosis of the Coral Acropora millepora (Ehrenberg, 1834) by Petroleum Products

Accidental oil spills from ships or rigs and inputs of effluent such as production formation water (PFW) are key perceived threats to tropical biota from industry activities. Scleractinian corals are an important functional component of tropical reefs and the abundance, diversity and resilience of coral communities can be used as an indicator of ecosystem health. In this paper, we report the effects of petroleum products, including water accommodated fractions (WAF) of crude oil, PFW and dispersant (Corexit 9527), on fertilization and larval metamorphosis of the widespread scleractinian coral, Acropora millepora (Ehrenberg, 1834) in laboratory-based assays. At 20% v/v PFW fertilization was inhibited by 25%. This concentration was equivalent 0.0721 mg l⁻¹ total hydrocarbon (THC). In contrast, larval metamorphosis was more sensitive to this effluent, with 98% metamorphosis inhibited at the same concentration. Crude oil WAF did not inhibit fertilization of gametes until dispersant was introduced. Dispersed oil was slightly more toxic to fertilization than dispersant alone, suggesting toxicity to that event may be additive. The minimum concentration of dispersed oil which inhibited fertilization was 0.0325 mg l⁻¹ THC. Larval metamorphosis was more sensitive than fertilization to crude oil. Although crude oil and dispersant inhibited larval metamorphosis individually, this toxicity was magnified when larvae were exposed to combinations of both. Crude oil inhibited metamorphosis at 0.0824 mg l⁻¹ THC and at 0.0325 mg l⁻¹ THC when dispersed in 10% v/v (dispersant/oil). Management of petroleum-related risks to spawning corals should consider not only the occurrence of the annual coral spawning event, but also the subsequent 1–3-week period during which most larval metamorphosis and recruitment occur.     

Persistent alternate abundance states in the coral reef sea urchin Diadema savignyi: evidence of alternate attractors

Alternate attractors have been shown to exist in a variety of terrestrial and aquatic systems, e.g. temperate forests, savannas, shallow lakes, wetlands, coral reefs, kelp forests. The shift from one attractor to another, also referred to as a regime shift, is thought to occur when a system passes some critical threshold such that the trajectory of the system changes direction. Alternate attractors in population dynamics can also exist, leading to alternate stable states in the population abundance of a species. This study explored alternate attractors in the population dynamics of the Indo‐Pacific sea urchin Diadema savignyi and the potential underlying mechanisms that promote its bi‐stability. In Moorea, French Polynesia, the local abundance of D. savignyi, a functionally important herbivore in lagoon habitats, occurs in two states: (i) solitary individuals that occupy crevices in low densities and (ii) aggregations of tens to hundreds of individuals. These different states are temporally stable and are not explained by spatial differences in recruitment rates of juveniles. A field experiment revealed that the per capita mortality rate of adult D. savignyi was substantially lower at sites where urchins occurred in aggregations compared with sites at which they were solitary individuals. An additional experiment showed that per capita mortality decreased with increasing aggregation size. Individuals in high‐density aggregations, however, had significantly smaller test diameters than solitary individuals, indicating that individuals in aggregations may be food limited. Collectively, the evidence suggests that the two different local abundance states of D. savignyi result from negative feedback loops where high local density can be maintained by aggregative behavior that greatly reduces per capita risk of predation when the local number of adult sea urchins is sufficiently large; sites with few sea urchins remain at low density because individuals are more susceptible to predation when crevices are occupied but there are not enough individuals to form large aggregations. Thus, there may be alternate attractors in the population dynamics of D. savignyi that can produce either persistently low or high local population densities.     

Sublittoral seaweed communities on natural and artificial substrata in a high-latitude coral community in South Africa

Coral mortality may result in macroalgal proliferation or a phase shift into an alga-dominated state. Subtidal, high-latitude western Indian Ocean coral communities at Sodwana Bay on the KwaZulu-Natal coast, South Africa, have experienced some mortality because of warm-water anomalies, storms and other causes, but the response of the macroalgae is unknown. We investigated the abundance and diversity of benthic algae on different hard natural substrata (dead digitate, brain and plate corals and beach rock) on Two-Mile Reef, Sodwana Bay. We also compared algal communities colonising ceramic, marble and pretreated ceramic tiles placed on the reef for six months. We identified 95 algae (14 Chlorophyta, 11 Phaeophyceae, 69 Rhodophyta and one cyanobacterium). Assemblages on natural and artificial substrata were dominated by the brown alga Lobophora variegata (Lamouroux) Womersley ex Oliveira and non-geniculate corallines (Rhodophyta, Corallinaceae). Cluster and ordination analyses revealed that the algae showed no affinity for particular substrata, whether natural or artificial. Algal cover was occasionally higher on rougher tiles and crustose corallines were significantly more abundant on marble than ceramic tiles. Two-Mile Reef had 23.1% dead and 48.4% live scleractinian coral cover, where dead corals were colonised indiscriminately by many small algal species, but there was no evidence of algal proliferation. The results provide a baseline for monitoring this high-latitude reef system.     

西藏班戈县保吉乡嘎热扎地中——晚三叠世珊瑚化石的发现及意义

在西藏班戈县保吉乡嘎热扎地发现了一套碎屑岩和灰岩互层的地层,产珊瑚和苔藓虫化石。珊瑚化石共计7属3种及4未定种,分别为Procyclolites zizaensis Deng&Zhang,Chondrocoenia?sp.,Parastraeomorpha?sp.,Pamiroseris?sp.,Astraeomorpha multisepta Melnikova,Volzeia sublaevis(Laube&Volz),Radiophyllia?sp.,时代为中-晚三叠世。该套地层的发现表明,措勤盆地存在中-晚三叠世地层,为该地区的古地理研究提供了地层古生物学证据。     

The Geochemical Significance of Deep-water Coral and Their Food Source

Deep-sea corals live in the dark cold-water environments, the food of which that provides them with energy and nutrition is a key ecological and biogeochemical problem. Currently, the most common understanding is that their food mainly comes from organic matter produced by and deposited from surface seawater. However, more and more studies have found that they can also obtain food supply through symbiosis with a variety of chemosynthetic autotrophs and heterotrophs. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes have been used to trace and reveal the food sources of deep-sea corals. They also have been successfully used to reconstruct the phytoplankton community structure and the changes of nitrate isotopes in surface seawater in the past, thus providing valuable biogeochemical data for paleoceanographic study. However, due to the widespread existence of symbiosis with chemosynthetic autotrophs, further studies are needed to assess the reliability of organic carbon and nitrogen isotopes of deep-sea corals to reflect changes in the surface seawater. The deep-sea gorgonian coral, like those gorgonian forests recently found in the South China Sea, is relatively new and insufficiently studied in the field of deep-sea corals. Thus, basic biochemical and paleoceanographic researches on the South China Sea deep-water gorgonians will provide profound and novel insights to understanding the cold-water coral system.     

基于卫星高光谱遥感影像的浅海水深反演方法

遥感水深反演具有非接触测量和省时省力等优点,能够为航海、岛礁工程与珊瑚礁生态调查等活动提供重要参考。随着高光谱遥感卫星数量的增长,基于高光谱遥感影像的水深反演具有良好的发展与应用潜力。HOPE（Hyperspectral Optimization Process Exemplar）算法是比较常用的高光谱水深反演算法。鉴于HOPE算法在低遥感反射率海域会出现水深被高估的问题,本文基于Hyperion高光谱遥感影像提出一种改进的水深反演算法。该算法针对危险或难以到达海域往往具有水体光学性质较为均一的特点,利用深水区遥感反射率的观测值来估计整个研究区域内的水体光学性质参数并将其固定,以便减少未知参数数量,解决水深被高估的问题,最终达到提高水深反演整体精度的目的。塞班岛和中业岛的实验结果表明,改进算法能够有效克服常规HOPE算法在低遥感反射率水域高估水深的问题。改进算法能够将平均遥感反射率小于0.0075sr^-1（塞班岛）和0.001 sr^-1（中业岛）范围内的水域的水深反演平均绝对误差从常规HOPE算法的2.94 m和6.44 m分别降低至2.56 m和4.99 m,从而能够相应地将整体的均方根误差从3.18 m和5.39 m分别降低至2.30 m和3.32 m,而将整体的平均相对误差从32.4%和27.1%分别降低至30.6%和23.9%。因此,改进算法在提高卫星高光谱遥感影像水深反演效果方面具有可行性和有效性。     

南海资源环境地理研究综述

南海及沿岸地带是亚太地区经济发展最有活力和潜力的地区之一,受全球变化和人类活动的影响,南海资源环境正发生快速变化,对社会、经济、生态和环境带来新压力。本文从地理空间信息角度,以海岸资源、海洋资源和珊瑚礁资源的地理研究为综述内容,梳理了该区域岸线遥感监测、油气资源储量及渔业资源渔获量的地理差异、珊瑚礁地貌遥感监测与珊瑚白化等相关研究进展,讨论了已有研究的成果及其薄弱方向,依据发展趋势探讨了未来研究工作的重点。综述发现,南海资源环境的地理空间研究中,主要成果表现在资源环境的大面积快速监测与地理分异性方面,但在资源分布的内在机制及资源开发的环境效应影响方面仍缺少足够的研究。未来可望获得突破的研究主要包括：区域时空多尺度特征及其效应,区域间自然和社会发展的分异和规律,多源数据融合的南海资源动态监测的精度与时效的提高,以及资源变化过程的海洋生态与环境综合效应研究等。