A new study conducted by a team of international researchers claims that we must rethink our research strategy in order to better understand the effects of multiple climate change stressors on the future of our coral reefs. The team came to the conclusion after conducting a literature review of recent research on the ecological health impacts of corals in the face of multiple stressors such as rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification.
In addition to causing bleaching and destroying calcium shells, increased atmospheric carbon dioxide leads to changes in ocean temperature and acidification that can slow coral growth and prevent reproduction. Even worse, when these two climate stressors occur simultaneously, they have additional detrimental effects that cannot be predicted by our current climate change models that only take single stressors into consideration.
"The evidence is stacking up that the interaction of multiple stressors and ecological complexity may mean that negative effects on coral reefs will happen sooner, and be more severe than previously thought," said Chris Langdon, co-author of the study. "In order to answer the challenge to produce more accurate predictions, coral reef scientists will need to scale-up their studies to better encompass the complexity of natural systems."
The team believes that a new focus is needed in coral reef research, one that combines traditional laboratory experiments with field-based experiments that offer more realistic results by mimicking the effects of multiple stressors on corals.
"Because the species that make up coral reefs differ from region to region, we need a global strategy for choosing where to locate these larger, field-based experiments, called mesocosm studies, to better inform adaptation and environmental policy that are regionally appropriate," the team said.
Previous research has supported the idea that climate change stressors are compounded when combined with other stressors. One such study found that drought and water table changes have an even more harmful effect on the population of a rare Minnesota orchid when combined with the introduction of an invasive species.
"When you start combining impacts, there's a bigger decrease in the population," said Laura Phillips-Mao, who led the study.
The findings were published in the March 24 issue of Frontiers in Marine Science.
