The importance of structural complexity in coral reef ecosystems

By Nicholas A. J. Graham, K. L. Nash. Coral reefs, 2012

961 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The importance of structural complexity in coral reefs has come to the fore with the global degradation of reef condition; however, the limited scale and replication of many studies have restricted our understanding of the role of complexity in the ecosystem. We qualitatively and quantitatively (where sufficient standardised data were available) assess the literature regarding the role of structural complexity in coral reef ecosystems. A rapidly increasing number of publications have studied the role of complexity in reef ecosystems over the past four decades, with a concomitant increase in the diversity of methods used to quantify structure. Quantitative analyses of existing data indicate a strong negative relationship between structural complexity and algal cover, which may reflect the important role complexity plays in enhancing herbivory by reef fishes. The cover of total live coral and branching coral was positively correlated with structural complexity. These habitat attributes may be creating much of the structure, resulting in a collinear relationship; however, there is also evidence of enhanced coral recovery from disturbances where structural complexity is high. Urchin densities were negatively correlated with structural complexity; a relationship that may be driven by urchins eroding reef structure or by their gregarious behaviour when in open space. There was a strong positive relationship between structural complexity and fish density and biomass, likely mediated through density-dependent competition and refuge from predation. More variable responses were found when assessing individual fish families, with all families examined displaying a positive relationship to structural complexity, but only half of these relationships were significant. Although only corroborated with qualitative data, structural complexity also seems to have a positive effect on two ecosystem services: tourism and shoreline protection. Clearly, structural complexity is an integral component of coral reef ecosystems, and it should be incorporated into monitoring programs and management objectives.

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/50dd0b4a3513abf1f10728f1da84da6226b0a581

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Citations in the corpus

Relationships between structural complexity, coral traits, and reef fish assemblages (2017, background): “This is a contrasting finding to studies 449 that have found a positive association between the abundance of branching corals 450 and fish assemblages via structural complexity (Chabanet et al. 1997; Messmer et al. 451 2011; Graham and Nash 2013).”
Habitat degradation increases functional originality in highly diverse coral reef fish assemblages (2016, background): “…following losses of herbivorous fishes and apex predators through anthropogenic exploitation (Friedlander and DeMartini 2002, Bellwood et al. 2004), natural disturbances do not commonly result in drastic shifts in fish functional structure (but see Graham and Nash 2013, Emslie et al. 2014).”
Structural complexity mediates functional structure of reef fish assemblages among coral habitats (2017, background): “Studies concerned with impacts of reef degradation demonstrate the importance of habitat structure for reef fish taxonomic diversity and abundance (Graham and Nash 2013), fish body-size distributions (Wilson et al. 2010), trophic structure (Alvarez-Filip et al. 2011b), and habitat selection of…”
Potential for landscape-scale positive interactions among tropical marine ecosystems (2014, background): “292 Gillis et al.: Landscape-scale facilitation among tropical marine ecosystems Density and complexity of the coral reef was positively related to fish biomass (Graham & Nash 2013).”
Reef degradation and the loss of critical ecosystem goods and services provided by coral reef fishes (2014, background): “The abundance of fishes tends to increase linearly with increases in topographic complexity measured, at least over the limited range of values reported for fine-scale rugosity [14 ].”
Form and function of tropical macroalgal reefs in the Anthropocene (2019, background): “The collapse of coral reef structural complexity is associated with a substantial loss of reef‐associated species (Graham & Nash, 2013; Rogers, Blanchard, & Mumby, 2014).”
Habitat structural complexity metrics improve predictions of fish abundance and distribution (2018, methodology): “Complexity provides a suite of resources to organisms and is linked to species abundance (Graham and Nash 2013), and it influences fish presence and abundance because it provides shelter and physical habitat for benthic assemblages (Harborne et al. 2011, Ferrari 2017).”
Coral propagation: a review of techniques for ornamental trade and reef restoration (2017, background): “The structural complexity of coral reefs is positively associated with biomass and density of fish species (Graham & Nash 2013) and plays a significant role in mitigating the effects of habitat disturbances on the structure of reef fish communities (Emslie et al. 2014).”
Using 3D photogrammetry from ROV video to quantify cold-water coral reef structural complexity and investigate its influence on biodiversity and community assemblage (2019, background): “6) is comparable to global shallow-water coral reef rugosity index values (Graham and Nash 2013).”
Rapid adaptive responses to climate change in corals (2017, background): “Nature Climate Change, Nature Publishing Group, 2017, 7 (9), pp.”
Changing geo‐ecological functions of coral reefs in the Anthropocene (2018, background): “For instance, reef complexity is strongly linked to fish and invertebrate diversity and the ecological interactions among them (Graham & Nash 2012; Morillo‐Velarde et al., 2018), and strongly influences wave energy dissipation over reefs (see next section and Figure 4).”
Effects of the alien coral Tubastraea tagusensis on native coral assemblages in a southwestern Atlantic coral reef (2016, background): “This would be dramatic for reef integrity, because hermatypic corals are ecological engineers accumulating high rates of calcium carbonate (Birkeland 1977) that increase reef structural complexity and facilitate the occurrence of a large number of species (Graham and Nash 2012; Graham 2014; Rogers e”