Newton Fund - Wallacea ProgrammeNewton Fund - Wallacea ProgrammeThe coral reef biodiversity of Wallacea is truly iconic and supports the livelihoods of millions of people across the archipelago. Yet climate change, pollution, and overuse are key threats to these fragile ecosystems.
Effective conservation requires understanding how these impacts affect ecological processes, such as species interactions, so these processes can be managed or protected appropriately.
Researchers led by Universities of Leeds and Essex with Universitas Hasanuddin and Pattimura are forging a new understanding on how reef degradation affects ecological processes through species interactions.
The team is using environmental DNA analyses across 260 sites to characterise the simplification of species networks with increasing reef decline.
Global warming increases thermal stress to reef-building corals that can cause coral bleaching and mortality.
Based on modelling aquatic data the team has found the reefs alongside Wallacean islands will likely vary substantially in their exposure future climate changes, but that there are few available climate refuges even at 1.5°C global heating.
Bani et al. (2020) Informing marine spatial planning decisions with environmental DNA; Tropical Ecosystems in the 21st Century. Advances in Ecological Research 62, 375-407.
