caa a22 4500 445819308 CHVBK 20180317145239.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20110901xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00338-011-0775-x doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00338-011-0775-x Episodic heterogeneous decline and recovery of coral cover in the Indian Ocean [Elektronische Daten] [M. Ateweberhan, T. McClanahan, N. Graham, C. Sheppard] Long-term changes in coral cover for the Caribbean and the Pacific/Southeast Asia regions (PSEA) have proven extremely useful in assessing the main drivers, magnitude and timescales of change. The one major coral reef region where such assessments have not been made is the Indian Ocean (IO). Here, we compiled coral cover survey data from across the IO into a database of ~2,000 surveys from 366 coral reef sites collected between 1977 and 2005. The compilation shows that the 1998 mass coral bleaching event was the single most important and widespread factor influencing the change in coral cover across the region. The trend in coral cover followed a step-type function driven by the 1998 period, which differs from findings in the Caribbean and the PSEA regions where declines have been more continuous and mostly began in the 1980s. Significant regional variation was observed, with most heterogeneity occurring during and after 1998. There was a significant relationship between cover and longitude for all periods, but the relationship became stronger in the period immediately after 1998. Before 1998, highest coral cover was observed in the central IO region, while this changed to the eastern region after 1998. Coral cover and latitude displayed a significant U-shaped relationship immediately after 1998, due to a large decrease in cover in the northern-central regions. Post-1998 coral cover was directly correlated to the impact of the disturbance; areas with the lowest mortality having the highest cover with India-Sri Lanka being an outlier due to its exceptionally high recovery. In 1998, reefs within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were more heavily impacted than unmanaged reefs, losing significantly greater total cover. MPA recovery was greater such that no differences were observed by 2001-2005. This study indicates that the regional patterns in coral cover distribution in the IO are driven mainly by episodic and acute environmental stress. Springer-Verlag, 2011 ENSO nationallicence Climatic disturbance nationallicence Climate change impact nationallicence Coral bleaching nationallicence Coral reef management nationallicence Ecological vulnerability nationallicence Marine reserves nationallicence Recovery nationallicence Regional variation nationallicence Ateweberhan M. School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL, Coventry, UK aut McClanahan T. Coral Reef Conservation Project, P.O. Box 99470, Mombasa, Kenya aut Graham N. ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, 4811, Townsville, QLD, Australia aut Sheppard C. School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL, Coventry, UK aut Coral Reefs Springer-Verlag 30/3(2011-09-01), 739-752 0722-4028 30:3<739 2011 30 338 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-011-0775-x text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-011-0775-x text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Ateweberhan M. School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL, Coventry, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- McClanahan T. Coral Reef Conservation Project, P.O. Box 99470, Mombasa, Kenya aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Graham N. ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, 4811, Townsville, QLD, Australia aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Sheppard C. School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL, Coventry, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Coral Reefs Springer-Verlag 30/3(2011-09-01), 739-752 0722-4028 30:3<739 2011 30 338 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer