الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Resilience is the ability of an ecosystem to absorb shocks, resist phase shifts and regenerate after natural and human-induced disturbances (Nyström et al., 2000). A core component of resilience is the ability of an ecosystem to maintain its key ecological functions and processes after disturbance by either resisting or adapting to change (Gunderson, 2000; Carpenter et al., 2001; Nyström & Folke, 2001). For coral reefs, it is the ability of reefs to absorb recurrent disturbances (such as coral bleaching events), and rebuild coral-dominated systems rather than shifting to algal dominated systems (Marshall & Schuttenberg, 2006; Hughes et al., 2007a). Coral reef ecosystems are damaged by numerous human activities (Nyström et al., 2000; Bellwood et al., 2004) and global climate change is exacerbating reef degradation through increases in thermal stress, ocean acidification, storm activity and disease outbreaks (Hughes et al., 2003; Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2007; Cheal et al., 2010). Together, these stressors may lead to coral– macroalgal phase shifts. |