Life Sciences Commons^™

Further Flattening Of A Degraded, Turbid Reef System Following A Severe Coral Bleaching Event, Andrew G. Bauman, Fraser A. Januchowski-Hartley, Aaron Teo, Peter A. Todd

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Increasing incidence of severe coral bleaching events caused by climate change is contributing to extensive coral losses, shifts in species composition and widespread declines in the physical structure of coral reef ecosystems. With these ongoing changes to coral communities and the concomitant flattening of reef structural complexity, understanding the links between coral composition and structural complexity in maintaining ecosystem functions and processes is of critical importance. Here, we document the impacts of the 2016 global-scale coral bleaching event on seven coral reefs in Singapore; a heavily degraded, turbid reef system. Using a combination of field-based surveys, we examined changes in …