Coastal seawater turbidity and thermal stress control growth of reef-building Porites spp. corals in Fiji

Samperiz, Ana, Sosdian, Sindia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4599-5529, Hendy, Erica, Johnson, Kenneth, John, Eleanor H., Jupiter, Stacy D. and Albert, Simon 2025. Coastal seawater turbidity and thermal stress control growth of reef-building Porites spp. corals in Fiji. Scientific Reports 15 (1) , 17172. 10.1038/s41598-025-02283-6

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Abstract

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 Porites 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, R2 = 0.42, p < 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.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Earth and Environmental Sciences
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, Type: open-access
Publisher:	Nature Research
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	19 May 2025
Date of Acceptance:	12 May 2025
Last Modified:	19 May 2025 17:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/178359

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