Spatiotemporal variability of oxygen concentration in coral reefs of Gorgona Island (Eastern Tropical Pacific) and its effect on the coral Pocillopora capitata
Ana Lucia Castrillón-Cifuentes,
Fernando A. Zapata,
Alan Giraldo,
Christian Wild
Affiliations
Ana Lucia Castrillón-Cifuentes
Department of Marine Ecology/Faculty of Biology and Chemistry, Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Fernando A. Zapata
Departamento de Biología/Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas/Grupo de Investigación en Ecología de Arrecifes Coralinos, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Alan Giraldo
Departamento de Biología/Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas/Grupo de Investigación en Ciencias Oceanográficas, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Christian Wild
Department of Marine Ecology/Faculty of Biology and Chemistry, Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Dissolved oxygen concentration (DO) is one of the main factors limiting benthic species distribution. Due to ocean warming and eutrophication, the ocean is deoxygenating. In the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP), deep waters with low DO (20 m depth and coincide with the deepest bathymetric distribution of scattered colonies of Pocillopora. Because DO concentrations in coral reefs of Gorgona Island were comparably low to other coral reefs in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, and the hypoxic threshold of P. capitata was close to the minimum DO record on reefs, hypoxic events could represent a threat if conditions that promote eutrophication (and consequently hypoxia) increase.