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Current and future trophic interactions in tropical shallow-reef lagoon habitats

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Abstract

Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) sediments are the dominant form of CaCO3 on coral reefs accumulating in lagoon and inter-reefal areas. Owing to their mineralogy and a range of physical parameters, tropical CaCO3 sediments are predicted to be more sensitive to dissolution driven by ocean acidification than the skeleton of living reef organisms. How this scales up to impact infaunal organisms, which are an important food source for higher trophic levels, and thereby ecosystem functioning, is not well explored. We combined seasonal field surveys in a shallow-reef lagoon ecosystem on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, with stable isotope analyses and a tank-based experiment to examine the potential top-down influence of the deposit-feeding sea cucumber, Stichopus herrmanni, on this infaunal community under current and future ocean pH. Densities of surface-sediment meiofauna were lowest in winter and spring, with harpacticoid copepods (38%) and nematodes (27%) the dominant taxa. Stable isotope analyses showed that S. herrmanni had a top-down influence on meiofauna and microphytes with a distinct δ13C and δ15N trophic position that was homogenous across seasons and locations. Tanks that mimicked sandy shallow-reef lagoon habitats were used to examine the effects of ocean acidification (elevated pCO2) on this trophic interaction. We used outdoor control (sediment only) and experimental (sediment plus S. herrmanni) tanks maintained at present-day and near-future pCO2 (+ 570 µatm) for 24 days, which fluctuated with the diel pCO2 cycle. In sediment-only tanks, copepods were > twofold more abundant at elevated pCO2, with no negative effects documented for any meiofauna group. When included in the community, top-down control by S. herrmanni counteracted the positive effects of low pH on meiofaunal abundance. We highlight a novel perspective in coral reef trophodynamics between surface-sediment meiofauna and deposit-feeding sea cucumbers, and posit that community shifts may occur in shallow-reef lagoon habitats in a future ocean with implications for the functioning of coral reefs from the bottom up.

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taken from the a body wall and b tube feet. Note: n = 1 for infaunal groups (see “Methods”)

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a PhD scholarship from the University of Sydney and grants from the Mohammed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment. The authors thank Dr. Sebastian Holmes and Dr. Mallie Gall for assistance with isotopic methodology and sample preparation, and Dr. Francisco Vidal-Ramirez, Aaron Chai, Giovanni Bernal Carrillo and the Coral Reef Ecosystems Laboratory (University of Queensland) for support with climate change experiments on Heron Island. Additionally, they thank Camila Ayroza, Dr. Shawna Foo, Luca Palazzo and Louise Wolfe for assistance in the field, and the staff of One Tree, Heron and Orpheus Island Research Stations. This is contribution number 261 from the Sydney Institute of Marine Science. On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Spatial Ecology Lab, School of Biological Sciences and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Kennedy Wolfe

  2. School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Dione J. Deaker & Maria Byrne

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

    Alexia Graba-Landry

  4. Fisheries Research, NSW Department of Primary Industries, Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia

    Curtis Champion

  5. National Marine Science Centre, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia

    Curtis Champion

  6. Global Change Institute and Coral Reef Ecosystems Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Sophie Dove

  7. School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164-4236, USA

    Raymond Lee

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  1. Kennedy Wolfe
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  2. Dione J. Deaker
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  3. Alexia Graba-Landry
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  4. Curtis Champion
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  5. Sophie Dove
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  6. Raymond Lee
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  7. Maria Byrne
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Correspondence to Kennedy Wolfe.

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Wolfe, K., Deaker, D.J., Graba-Landry, A. et al. Current and future trophic interactions in tropical shallow-reef lagoon habitats. Coral Reefs 40, 83–96 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-02017-2

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