1. Primary productivity of a degraded coral reef
Joost den Haan  Petra Visser  Hannah Brocke  Mark Vermeij  Jef Huisman
Session 26: Regime shifts in lakes, rivers and oceans

3. Nice reef

6. Reefs of Buoy 0 have been degrading rapidly…
Bak et al. 2005

7. Which reef phototrophic organism contributes most to the overall productivity of the reef?

8. Reef organisms studied
5 macroalgal species
Dictyota
Lobophora
Dichotomaria
Halimeda
Cladophora
turf algae
1 coral species
Madracis
2 cyanobacterial mats
Lyngbya
Dichothrix
phytoplankton

9. Primary productivity: Benthic
13C 3-h incubation

10. Primary production: Phytoplankton
Reef
13C 3-h incubation

11. Primary productivity results
5 m: light color
20 m: dark color 8
Tukey HSD a b bc
bcd cd d
Primary productivity (mg C g-1 DW h-1) 4
Madracis
Turf algae
Halimeda
Cladophora
Dictyota
Lobophora
Dichotomaria
Dichothrix
Lyngbya
Lyngbya majuscula
Plankton
coral
turf
macroalgae
cyanobact.
phyto
What is the areal productivity (per m2)?
Biomass on the reef
Primary productivity rates

12. Primary productivity at reef-wide scale
Higher productivity at shallow reef
phytoplankton
turf algae
macroalgae
Primary productivity (mg C m-2 h-1)
coral
5 m
depth
20 m

13. Unique historic baseline
Reef productivity 1975 vs. 2013
Is there a change in which organism contributes most?

14. Turf algae and macroalgae
Change in organism that contributes most
in the shallow reef?
Turf algae and macroalgae
Hard corals
Total PP
mg C m-2 h-1
1975*
19%
65%
265
2013**
79%
16%
240
* Wanders JBW The role of benthic algae in the shallow reef of Curaçao (Netherlands Antilles). I: Primary productivity in the coral reef. Aquatic Botany 2:
** this study

15. Dissolved organic carbon
Consequences
Pathogenic microbes
Dinsdale et al. 2008; Nelson et al. 2013
Coral diseases
Barott et al. 2009, 2012
Dissolved organic carbon
Turfalgae
Haas et al. 2010,2013; Brocke et al. 2015

16. Thank you for your attention!
Special thanks to my students:
Laura Weiand, Anna Simeon, Amanda Ford, Katy Davis, Elfi Gooren, Anjani Ganase, Nienke ten Brinke, Moriah Sevier, Friso Dekker, Henry Goehlich, Jelmer Pander, Kelly Latijnhouwers, Seth van Heeringen, Saskia Honcoop, Tanja Bleyenberg, Ramona Brunner, Maureen de Wit, Milo de Baat, and Daan Mes