[Coral-List] ICRS 2020 Session - Budgetary Break Down
Tyler Cyronak
tcyronak at gmail.com
Fri Jul 26 17:51:17 UTC 2019
Dear Colleagues,
We want to bring your attention to an ICRS 2020 session focused on
calcium carbonate budgets in coral reef environments. If you are working
in the arena of calcium carbonate budgets, dissolution, bioerosion, and
accretion on modern and geological timescales please consider submitting
to our session.
On behalf of all chairs,
Tyler and Ines
Theme 3: Budgetary breakdown: Can reef geo-ecological functions
persist in the Anthropocene?
The production and maintenance of complex calcium carbonate structure is
perhaps the most critical function of a healthy coral reef ecosystem,
providing habitat for numerous marine species and acting as a breakwater
that dissipates wave energy and protects shorelines. The build-up of
reef framework is driven by counteracting rates of calcium carbonate
production (i.e., calcification) and calcium carbonate breakdown and
loss (i.e., dissolution, bioerosion, off-reef transport). Recent work
has shown that the accelerating pace of global anthropogenic change,
including increases in seawater temperature, ocean acidification, and
sea level rise will significantly impact the capacity of reefs to
sustain positive calcium carbonate budgets and associated ecosystem
services. Although the footprint of anthropogenic disturbance will be
different across marine regions and habitats, the repercussions for many
reef ecosystems may be broadly similar: i) progressively shifting
towards net negative calcium carbonate budget states; ii) becoming
structurally flatter; and iii) having lower vertical growth rates. To
understand how this progression will impact reef geo-ecological
functions it is critical to understand both impacts on the biological
processes that drive carbonate production on the reef surface and the
breakdown processes that affect the accumulation of the underlying reef
structure. For this session we invite contributions that explore calcium
carbonate budgets and coral reef geo-ecological functions in the
Anthropocene and address questions pertaining to: i) how changes in the
abundance of key calcifying groups impact habitat complexity and reef
budgets, ii) how the changing intensity of destructive processes impact
reef budgets, iii) how rates of net reef accretion are changing now and
predictions for the future, and iv) the implications of these changes
for the maintenance of geo-ecological ecosystem services provided by
coral reefs. We also welcome contributions that discuss novel approaches
to quantifying calcium carbonate budgets, reef accretion, carbonate
break-down and reef geo-ecological functions.
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