Culling corallivores improves short-term coral recovery under bleaching scenarios

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 2520
• Main Authors: Rogers, Jacob G. D., Plagányi, Éva E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 09-05-2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/158/1144; 704/106/694; 704/829/826; Animals; Anthozoa; Bleaching; Coral Reefs; Corals; Culling; Ecosystem; Ecosystem models; Heat; Heat stress; Heat tolerance; Humanities and Social Sciences; Invertebrates; Management; multidisciplinary; Predators; Recruitment; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sensitivity; Sodium Compounds; Starfish; Temperature effects; Thermal simulation; Thermal stress
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30213-x

Management of coral predators, corallivores, is recommended to improve coral cover on tropical coral reefs under projected increasing levels of accumulated thermal stress, but whether corallivore management can improve coral cover, which is necessary for large-scale operationalisation, remains equivocal. Here, using a multispecies ecosystem model, we investigate intensive management of an invertebrate corallivore, the Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (
Acanthaster cf. solaris
), and show that culling could improve coral cover at sub-reef spatial scales, but efficacy varied substantially within and among reefs. Simulated thermal stress events attenuated management-derived coral cover improvements and was dependent on the level of accumulated thermal stress, the thermal sensitivity of coral communities and the rate of corallivore recruitment at fine spatial scales. Corallivore management was most effective when accumulated thermal stress was low, coral communities were less sensitive to heat stress and in areas of high corallivore recruitment success. Our analysis informs how to manage a pest species to promote coral cover under future thermal stress events.
This study uses multispecies modelling to show that the management of a coral predator, the crown-of-thorns starfish, could help corals recover following bleaching events. They show that management was most effective when heat stress severity for corals was low to moderate, when corals had lower heat sensitivity and when the recruitment rate of starfish was high.