Moorea Coral Reef LTER Research

The LTER site at Moorea is an interdisciplinary, decadal- and landscape-scale program that will provide understanding of the processes that modulate ecosystem function, shape community structure and diversity, and determine abundance and dynamics of constituent populations.  This will provide insight into the response of coral reefs to a variety of perturbations that operate across different spatial and temporal scales.  The results will create the capacity to forecast the response of coral reefs to environmental conditions, thereby creating a tool to aid in the development of management strategies.  To achieve this vision, we are: (1) conducting a monitoring program to measure decadal trends in reef biota and abiotic forcing functions, (2) undertaking observations and experiments to explore processes and events affecting the reef structure, function and dynamics, and (3) developing a suite of quantitative models to synthesize and generalize results.  Our framework stresses integration across the levels of biological organization, building from the sub-organismal to the ecosystem levels. 

Monitoring of Long-Term Trends

The monitoring component is designed to meet the needs for comparative analysis within the LTER system, to measure long-term trends, and to provide a contextual basis for process-oriented studies.  Depending on the taxon or process under investigation, the scale and scope of the monitoring encompasses a variable number of sites, zones, depths, or frequencies of sampling.  The most spatially inclusive sampling includes three habitat types [2 fore reef depths, back reef, fringing reef] at two localities on each of the three shores of Moorea.  Regional scale properties (e.g., sea-surface temperature, subsurface Chl a concentration, regional surface currents) are estimated by remote sensing using information collected by existing satellite sensors.  Biotic factors are monitored within quadrats or along fixed transects, and include aspects of (i) ecosystem function (e.g., primary productivity), (ii) community-level attributes (e.g., trophic structure, diversity), (iii) population-level characteristics (e.g., abundance, dynamics), and (iv) individual-based characteristics (e.g., demography, functional metrics).  In addition to climate data, abiotic factors that affect reef organisms are monitored.  In addition to tracking long-term trends, results from monitoring studies provide parameter values for analytic models and help guide experiments to establish cause-and-effect.

Process-Oriented Studies

Process-oriented studies are needed to understand the causes and consequences of change in attributes of the coral reef ecosystem.  These projects will shed light on the key processes that:

In the early stages of the Moorea Coral Reef LTER Program, process-oriented studies will explore:

Modeling and Synthesis

Science themes in the Moorea Coral Reef LTER Program are supported by oceanographic and ecological modeling.  The oceanographic models characterize the physical forcing and population transport in the system, and the ecological models describe biological processes occurring on the reefs.  Models also help integrate the results of the individual empirical studies, guide the design of future empirical work, and relate findings to other coral reef systems as well as to other non-tropical systems (e.g., other LTER sites).

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For questions, please contact: brooks@msi.ucsb.edu