Impacts of a shallow shipwreck on a coral reef: A case study from St. Brandon's Atoll, Mauritius, Indian Ocean.
Algal bloom
Black reefs
Coral
Ecotoxicology
Fish
Sea cucumbers
Journal
Marine environmental research
ISSN: 1879-0291
Titre abrégé: Mar Environ Res
Pays: England
ID NLM: 9882895
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Apr 2020
Apr 2020
Historique:
received:
13
08
2019
revised:
04
02
2020
accepted:
06
02
2020
entrez:
17
3
2020
pubmed:
17
3
2020
medline:
10
7
2020
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Shallow shipwrecks, can have severe ecological and toxicological impacts on coral atolls. In 2012, a tuna longliner ran aground on the reef crest of St Brandon's Atoll, Mauritius, broke up into three pieces which was moved by currents and storms into the lagoon. In the months following the grounding, the coral around the wreck became dead and black. Down-current from the wreck, a dense bloom of filamentous algae (Ulva sp.) attached to coral occurred. To determine the ecological effects of the wreck on the system, the marine biota around the wreck, in the algal bloom, and fish reference zones were counted in 2014. Metal concentrations in reference and affected coral was determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP/MS). A pronounced difference was seen in the metal concentration pattern between coral from the wreck- and algal zones, and the coral reference zone. While the wreck zone contained the highest abundance of fish, the fish reference zone had the highest species diversity but with fewer fish. We also counted eleven Critically Endangered hawksbill sea turtles Eretmochelys imbricata and significantly more sea cucumbers in the algal zone than the reference zones. The effects of shipwrecks on coral reefs must be considered a threat over periods of years and should be studied further.
Identifiants
pubmed: 32174336
pii: S0141-1136(19)30486-6
doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.104916
pii:
doi:
Substances chimiques
Chelating Agents
0
Water Pollutants, Chemical
0
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
104916Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Declaration of competing interest The authors (Veronica van der Schyff, Marinus du Preez, Karin Blom, Henrik Kylin, Nee Sun Choong Kwet Yive, Julian Merven, Jovani Raffin, and Hindrik Bouwman) declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.