Implications of Nutrient Flow and Feedback Across the Seabird-Island-Reef System
Project Overview
Context
Seabirds foraging at sea deliver large quantities of nutrients onto the islands on which they roost and breed. These nutrient subsidies can boost terrestrial plant biomass and invertebrate abundance, and recent work by our team has shown how they also enhance coral reef productivity, biodiversity and functioning.
UN Ocean Decade Challenge
Protect and restore ecosystems and biodiversity
Unlock ocean-based solutions to climate change
Funded by
This project brings together a new multidisciplinary team to understand the importance of seabird nutrient subsidies to nutrient cycling and effects on and among island ecosystems, coral reef ecology, and coral reef geomorphology. Key to this integrated approach is to understand and quantify the feedback loop between islands and reefs and back to islands. The project will expand geographically to include work in the Chagos Archipelago, Seychelles, and French Polynesia, and will incorporate islands with recent and ongoing rat eradication programs. Three interlinked work packages will assess the influence of seabird nutrient subsidies on:
1) island ecology, biogeochemical cycling and export
2) coral reef spatial nutrient patterns, trophic propagation, and recovery trajectories
3) reef growth and island sediment supply critical to mitigating the impacts of sea-level rise.
The potential for pest eradication in island and coral reef conservation has garnered momentum and the resulting understanding of nutrient feedback loops through the seabird-island-reef system will support tropical island conservation and restoration.
Eradicating invasive rats and restoring habitat on tropical islands is likely to cause an increase in seabirds populations, and the nutrients they deliver will enhance island nutrient cycling, coral reef ecology and reef geomorphological feedbacks back to islands.
Key Facts
Publications
Graph-Theoretic Modelling Reveals Connectivity Hotspots for Herbivorous Reef Fishes in a Restored Tropical Island System
Peterson, E.A., Stuart, C.E., Pittman, S.J., Benkwitt, C.E., Graham, N.A.J., Malhi, Y., Salmon, T., Stoll, B., Purkis, S.J., Wedding, L.M. (2024). Graph-theoretic modelling reveals connectivity hotspots for herbivorous reef fishes in a restored tropical island system. Landscape Ecology
Seabird Nutrients Increase Coral Calcification Rates and Boost Reef Carbonate Production
Lange, I.D., Benkwitt, C.E. (2024). Seabird nutrients increase coral calcification rates and boost reef carbonate production. Nature Scientific Reports
Seabird-Vectored Pelagic Nutrients Integrated into Temperate intertidal Rocky Shoes.
Healing, S., Benkwitt, C.E., Dunn, R.E., Graham, N.A.J. (2024). Seabird-vectored pelagic nutrients integrated into temperate intertidal rocky shoes. Frontiers in Marine Science.
Seabird Traits and Seasonality Modulate Nutrient Dynamics of Terrestrial and Marine Habitats on Atolls
Appoo, J., Bunbury, N., Letori, J., Hector, A., Gendron, A., Graham, N.A.J., Rocamora, G., Le Corre, M., Jaquemet, S. (2024). Seabird traits and seasonality modulate nutrient dynamics of terrestrial and marine habitats on atolls. Biotropica
Species Eradication for Ecosystem Restoration
Graham, N.A.J., Benkwitt, C.E., Jones, H.P. (2024). Species eradication for ecosystem restoration. Current Biology.
