Abstract
Extreme population fluctuations, or outbreaks, are driven by interacting processes that are often more complex than isolated changes in consumer or resource control. Blooms of the macroalga Caulerpa sertularioides in the eastern tropical Pacific overgrew and killed reef-building corals, with blooms onto reefs corresponding to cool La Niña phases of inter-decadal fluctuations of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. We quantified factors responsible for the maintenance of C. sertularioides patches in off-reef areas, namely an associational mutualism with an epiphytic cyanobacteria (Lyngbya majuscula), coupled with spatial refuges at the scales of individual thalli and habitat. Maintenance of near reef algal populations with a strong response to nutrient addition showed that these populations were primed to bloom onto reefs in response to enhanced nutrient delivery, such as those potentially associated with La Niña conditions. However, our experiments demonstrated that no single factor related to consumer or resource control was likely to stimulate bloom formation in isolation. Rather, we propose a novel model of reef bloom formation where off-reef blooms are sustained by processes reducing consumer control, and then bloom onto reefs through an interaction between increased allochthonous nutrient input and an uncoupling of consumer control by an association with epiphytic cyanobacteria.
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Acknowledgments
Funding from this study was provided by NSF Biological Oceanography Program (grant OCE-0002317 to P. Glynn and P. Fong) and a Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) Pre-Doctoral Fellowship to T. B. Smith. We thank P. Glynn for his advice and encouragement on all aspects of this research. We are ever grateful for the field assistance and stimulating input of C. Hueerkamp, A. Romanski, D. Manzello, and R. Muthukrisnan, and the analytical advice of M. Brandt. We would also like to express our gratitude for the enthusiastic logistical support of the staff of STRI and the R. V. Urraca.
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Communicated by Martin Attrill.
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Smith, T.B., Fong, P., Kennison, R. et al. Spatial refuges and associational defenses promote harmful blooms of the alga Caulerpa sertularioides onto coral reefs. Oecologia 164, 1039–1048 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-010-1698-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-010-1698-x