Infrastructure built to protect cities from flooding can increase economic damages elsewhere.
Image credit: Michelle A. Hummel.
Edited by David M. Karl, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, and approved December 15, 2010 (received for review October 14, 2010)
Abstract
Climate change is reshaping biological communities and has already generated novel ecosystems. The functioning of novel ecosystems could depart markedly from that of existing systems and therefore obscure the impacts of climate change. We illustrate this possibility for coral reefs, which are at the forefront of climatic stress. Disease has been a principal cause of reef degradation and is expected to worsen with increased future thermal stress. However, using a field-tested epizoological model, we show that high population turnover within novel ecosystems enhances coral resistance to epizootics. Thus, disease could become a less important driver of change in the future. We emphasize the need to move away from projections based on historic trends toward predictions that account for novel behavior of ecosystems under climate change.
Footnotes
- 1To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: laith.yakob{at}uq.edu.au or p.j.mumby{at}uq.edu.au.
Author contributions: L.Y. and P.J.M. designed research; L.Y. and P.J.M. performed research; L.Y. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; L.Y. analyzed data; and L.Y. and P.J.M. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
Climate change induces demographic resistance to disease in novel coral assemblages
Sign up for Article Alerts
Jump to section
You May Also be Interested in
Phosphine in the Venusian atmosphere can be explained without biogenic sources and is consistent with ongoing volcanism on Venus.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/NASA.
A study finds underreporting of COVID-19 cases in the United States and that the United States is likely far from achieving herd immunity through infection alone.
Image credit: Pixabay/geralt.
Researchers hope vaccines can serve as a key tool for addressing the opioid epidemic. The first clinical trials are underway, though big challenges remain.
Image credit: United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
Eyeing the effects of the Anthropocene, researchers offer a novel framework to identify and combine models from across the physical and social sciences.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Victor Lauer.