A .H. Baird, T.P. Hughes J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 251 2000 117 –132
119
cal requirements can adapt to different stages in the disturbance regime, analogous to the growth cycle of tropical forests Whitmore, 1989.
Two studies have closely examined the effect of Acropora hyacinthus on coral assemblages, with conflicting results. Sheppard 1981 compared the coral community
under Acropora hyacinthus to that outside the tables, at 10 m depth, on Broadhurst Reef, in the central Great Barrier Reef, but recorded no difference. In contrast, Stimson 1985
examined this pattern at 2–3 m depth on Enewetak Atoll, in the Central Pacific, and showed that the density and diversity of corals was sharply reduced beneath A
. hyacinthus
. Acropora hyacinthus may also influence patterns of coral recruitment, although again the existing evidence is contradictory. Wallace 1985a found that
recruitment by corals after 4 months onto experimental plates positioned underneath A .
hyacinthus was four times lower than on adjacent unshaded plates. Moreover, none of the recruits found under A
. hyacinthus were acroporids or pocilloporids, which dominated the unshaded panels. In contrast, Fisk and Harriott 1994 found that
recruitment beneath A . hyacinthus after 5 months was reduced much more markedly,
recording a 70-fold decline. In contrast to Wallace 1985a, they found a pronounced increase in the relative abundance of pocilloporids on shaded panels. The pre- and
post-settlement mechanisms responsible for the reduction in recruitment underneath A .
hyacinthus remain unclear. In this paper, we conducted a series of experiments to investigate the effects of A
. hyacinthus on its neighbours. To clarify earlier results that have been contradictory
Sheppard, 1981; Stimson, 1985, we first compare the structure of the coral assemblage underneath Acropora hyacinthus to that in the open to establish the extent of any
divergence in these assemblages. We then test the effect of A . hyacinthus on the
recruitment patterns of corals, and on the survivorship of coral juveniles and adults. In addition, we examine for the first time the effect of A
. hyacinthus on the patterns of recruitment, early survival and growth of other phototrophic and heterotrophic fouling
organisms. We hypothesise that all taxa should show some reduction in recruitment underneath A
. hyacinthus if reduced water flow causes a lowering in rates of delivery of larvae. Alternatively, reduced light levels would be implicated if the growth and
survivorship of phototrophic organisms was disproportionately affected.
2. Materials and methods
The study was conducted on the reef crest at Lizard Island on the northern Great Barrier Reef 148 419S, 1458 289E. The reef crest coral assemblage at this location is
typical of moderately exposed, offshore mid-shelf reefs on the Barrier Reef, and is often dominated by Acropora hyacinthus
, which forms a distinct zone from 1 to 3 m depth e.g. Done, 1982. An initial survey was conducted to compare the abundance of
corals and community structure underneath A . hyacinthus and on the adjacent reef crest.
Ten colonies 1–1.5 m in diameter of A . hyacinthus were selected haphazardly at 2 m
depth, their circumference was measured, and the outline of the colony was marked on the substratum with a length of chain. The colonies were then removed to facilitate
120 A
.H. Baird, T.P. Hughes J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 251 2000 117 –132
sampling of the understorey assemblage enclosed within the chained area. Two circular plots on the reef crest immediately north and south of the sampled colonies of A
. hyacinthus were delimited using the same length of chain. All coral colonies underneath
the A . hyacinthus tables and within the chained areas on the crest were identified to
species. For each colony, the maximum diameter and the diameter perpendicular to it were measured to the nearest centimeter. The area of each colony was calculated
assuming the colony was an ellipse. The cover of each taxonomic group see Results was calculated by summing the areas of each colony and dividing the total by the size of
the sampled plots.
2.1. Effects of Acropora hyacinthus on recruitment To test whether coral recruitment was reduced beneath Acropora hyacinthus
, replicate recruitment panels were placed underneath tables and in the open on the reef crest at a
depth of 2 m. The panels were deployed for 9 weeks on two separate occasions to examine the influence of A
. hyacinthus on two cohorts of coral larvae that differed substantially in taxonomic composition, due to seasonal variation in larval spawning and
settlement. The first deployment was from January 8 to March 10, 1994, and was timed to collect pocilloporids which release brooded larvae over an extended period Tanner,
1996. The second was from November 5, 1994 to January 6, 1995, timed to collect the larvae of broadcast spawning species which spawned at Lizard Island on 22 November,
1994 [L. Vail, personal communication]. The recruitment panels were attached horizon- tally to racks constructed of galvanized wire mesh, approximately 10 cm above the
substratum. Pairs of unglazed clay paving tiles 11 3 11 3 1 cm were bolted either side of the mesh to form a ‘sandwich’, with three tile pairs per rack. Sixteen racks eight per
treatment were used for the first deployment, and a further ten racks for the second five per treatment. After retrieval the tiles were bleached to remove soft tissues and
2
filamentous algae, rinsed in fresh water and dried. All surfaces of each tile pair 572 cm per tile pair were censused for juvenile corals using a stereo dissector microscope at
10 3 magnification and identified to the family level Acroporidae, Pocilloporidae, Poritidae, and ‘others’ which is the maximum resolution achievable in coral recruits of
this age e.g. Hughes et al., 1999.
To measure the effects of Acropora hyacinthus on the recruitment patterns of other fouling organisms, six tile-pairs from each treatment from the November 1994
deployment were censused, and the number of bryozoans, polychaete worms and bivalves were counted. Seventeen bryozoan and four polychaete taxa were distinguished.
To estimate the cover of crustose coralline algae CCA and filamentous algae, photographs were taken of each tile, prior to bleaching. Slides were projected onto paper
covered with a 7 3 7 square array of points, with a fiftieth point placed at random. The number of points covered by CCA and filamentous algae was counted to estimate
percent cover. After bleaching, a similar array of 50 points per tile was used to estimate the area cover of other calcareous organisms, including bryozoans, barnacles, bivalves
and polychaetes.
A .H. Baird, T.P. Hughes J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 251 2000 117 –132
121
2.2. Effect of Acropora hyacinthus on survivorship of corals and the development of fouling assemblages
To measure the impact of Acropora hyacinthus on the early survivorship of corals, panels were first seeded with field recruits by placing them on the crest for 9 weeks,
after which half were placed underneath tables and the remainder positioned in the open as controls for a further 8 weeks. Ten racks 30 tile pairs were placed on the reef in
November 1994 to collect recruits at the same time as the second deployment, see above. After 9 weeks, all racks were removed from the substratum and the exterior
surface of the bottom tile in each tile pair was photographed. Five of the racks were reattached beneath A
. hyacinthus colonies and five were handled identically but returned to the open reef crest. All racks were retrieved 8 weeks later giving a total deployment
duration of 17 weeks, and the tiles were photographed again. The two sets of photographs enabled us to follow the fate of individual recruits over the second 8 week
period. Recruits greater than 1–2 mm were detectable in the photographs. All of these were pocilloporids as determined from the final census of the bleached tiles which are
larger at settlement and grow faster than other corals Babcock, 1985; Sato, 1985. In addition to following the survival of individual recruits, we estimated the mortality of
the four coral taxa by comparing changes in the mean number of recruits on the bleached tiles in each of the three treatments 9 weeks open, 17 weeks open, 9 weeks
open then 8 weeks under A
. hyacinthus. The significance of differences in the numbers of corals was tested using one-way ANOVA. To measure the effect of transplantation
underneath A . hyacinthus on the development of the fouling assemblage the area cover
of the various non-coral taxa was also measured using 50 dots per panel surface, as described above. Percent cover data were log
x 1 1 transformed to satisfy the
10
assumption of ANOVA. Differences between the treatments were examined using LSD post-hoc tests.
To test the hypothesis that Acropora hyacinthus influences the survival of adult corals, coral fragments were transplanted underneath tables, and adjacent controls were
placed in the open. Sixty fragments, 6–8 cm in length, were generated from two common species; the staghorn Acropora intermedia formerly A
. nobilis and a small bushy coral, Pocillopora damicornis. Fragments were tied to nails driven into the
substratum to prevent movement and abrasion, and half were placed underneath and outside A
. hyacinthus. After 8 weeks, all fragments were retrieved and censused as either alive or dead defined as 100 tissue loss.
3. Results
