The question addressed in this project is: Does the 2014-2015 El Niño cause a regime shift in Galapagos subtidal ecosystems? And if so, what thresholds are crossed to drive the change from rocky subtidal communities with abundant corals to a barnacle dominated regime? Regime shifts are non-linear "ecological surprises" in the sense that the endpoint is not predictable as a linear outcome of a driver variable. The working hypothesis for this project is that the forthcoming 2014-2015 El Niño will create non-linear effects that are negative for corals which bleach during extreme temperature variability of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), but are positive for the benthic (bottom dwelling) food chain dependent on barnacles for food. The specific work in the Galapagos will contribute to the general understanding of non-linear effects of climate stress in marine ecosystems, which has been highlighted as a critical information gap needed to understand the effects of climate change on ecosystems. The study will also inform best practices for the conservation of corals, which are threatened worldwide by multiple stressors and cumulative direct, and indirect impacts. Broader educational impacts of the one-year project will transpire at all levels from high school students to graduate students. For example, the research program will provide valuable mentoring of a Brown University PhD student in subtidal field ecology and climate science. Undergraduate students will benefit from enhanced lectures on ecological impacts of climate oscillations in a large Ecology course at Brown and from training in the lab. The research team is committed to expanding outreach beyond these venues by fostering ocean and climate change literacy in presentations about the research results to local high schools.
Perturbations such as El Niños can drive ecosystems to a tipping point as thresholds are exceeded and a sudden transition to a different state (regime) occurs. Since the frequency of extreme El Niños is projected to increase with climate change, there is a pressing need to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how ENSOs affect marine communities in the context of climate change. Currently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center predicts a 70-80 % chance of an El Niño occurring during the northern hemisphere summer-winter of 2014-2015. This project leverages an existing quantitative baseline on benthic community structure in the Galapagos subtidal to address 12 predictions about community-ecosystem level impacts of the oncoming 2014-2015 El Niño. The research employs an observational-experimental approach to test the predictions and to discern if additional bleaching stress to corals and further increases in barnacles associated with this ENSO ultimately leads to an ecosystem state (regime) characterized by declining coral populations and increasing barnacles and their predators.
