Coastal seawater turbidity and thermal stress control growth of reef-building Porites spp. corals in Fiji
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Authors
Samperiz, AnaSosdian, Sindia
Hendy, Erica
Johnson, Kenneth

John, Eleanor H
Jupiter, Stacy D
Albert, Simon
Issue date
2025-05-17Submitted date
2025-01-20Subject Terms
nearshore reefcoral growth
seawater turbidity
thermal stress
Fiji
environmental impact
marine biology
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Show full item recordAbstract
Nearshore reefs, at the interface of land-sea interactions, provide essential ecosystem services, but are susceptible to multiple global and local stressors. These stressors can detrimentally impact coral growth and the continuity of the reef framework. Here, we analyse coral growth records (1998 – 2016) of massive <jats:italic>Porites</jats:italic> spp. colonies from nearshore reefs in Fiji. Our aim is to assess the role of thermal stress and turbidity on coral growth across a range of environments. Our findings reveal a negative linear relationship between linear extension and seawater turbidity across locations (GLM, R<jats:sup>2</jats:sup> = 0.42, <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> < 0.001), indicating that average coral growth is significantly influenced by local environmental conditions. On interannual timescales, all locations experienced a 14% to 30% decrease in linear extension in response to acute thermal stress during the 2013 – 2016 period. This finding highlights the existence of compounding effects between water quality and thermal stress. We suggest that inshore, long-lived massive hard corals in areas of high turbidity are more vulnerable to increasing SSTs due to an already reduced mean growth. Integrated management strategies in these regions that considers managing for multiple, interacting local stressors are warranted to enhance resilience.Citation
Samperiz, A., Sosdian, S., Hendy, E. et al. Coastal seawater turbidity and thermal stress control growth of reef-building Porites spp. corals in Fiji. Sci Rep 15, 17172 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-02283-6Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLCJournal
Scientific ReportsType
Journal ArticleItem Description
Copyright © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The linked file is the published version of the article.NHM Repository
EISSN
2045-2322ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1038/s41598-025-02283-6
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