Assessing spatiotemporal change in coral reef social-ecological systems

Area of Science:

• Marine ecology
• Social-ecological systems analysis
• Conservation science

Background:

• Coral reef resilience is globally eroding across multiple scales.
• This decline has significant implications for coastal communities and marine social-ecological systems (SESs).
• Projected impacts include the loss of essential ecological and societal benefits by the end of the 21st century.

Purpose of the Study:

• To apply resilience-based approaches to understand coral reef social-ecological system (SES) dynamics.
• To identify drivers of coral reef decline at a global scale.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of these methods for assessing spatiotemporal changes in coral reef resilience.

Main Methods:

• Utilized resilience-based approaches to analyze spatiotemporal changes in coral reef SESs globally.
• Compared univariate indicators with multivariate resilience-based approaches.
• Assessed impacts on coral reef resilience across the global seascape.

Main Results:

• Multivariate resilience-based approaches effectively captured coral reef SES dynamics, unlike univariate indicators.
• Distinctive patterns of variation and degraded resilience were identified across the global coral reef seascape.
• Regional degradation patterns were particularly evident in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Conclusions:

• Resilience-based approaches are valuable tools for assessing environmental change in SESs.
• These methods can detect spatiotemporal variation at global and regional scales.
• Findings facilitate more effective monitoring and management of coral reef SESs and their resilience.