Branco Weiss Fellow Since
2021
Research Category
Ecology, Oceanography
Research Location
Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l’Environnement (CRIOBE), École Pratique des Hautes Études, Perpignan, France
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Background
Tropical reefs host some of the highest rates of photosynthesis and biomass production on the planet. Yet, they thrive on Earth’s nutrient-poorest oceans and occupy less than 0.1 % of the ocean floor. This remarkable productivity has supported humans for many millennia, and still provides livelihood opportunities for over 6 million reef fishers and protein for many more fish consumers. So, what makes tropical reefs, and their fisheries, so productive?
Until now, attempts to crack the code of reef productivity have had limited success and faced strong trade-offs. From one side, investigations of global patterns of reef biomass captured key biodiversity patterns and human impacts, but often overlooked local variability and emphasised static proxies of production. From another side, detailed descriptions of specific pathways boosting reef productivity had a scope constrained to very small reef areas and model organisms with a minor role in biomass production (i.e., some benthic invertebrates). Reefs, like most other ecosystems, are, however, not isolated. They do interact and exchange energy and materials with other reefs and non-reef habitats peppered across the seascape. Could the spatial context of tropical reefs within connected seascapes hold the key for high biomass production in these ecosystems?https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/coral-reefs-depend-on-fish-the-size-of-jellybeans
Details of Research
In his fellowship, Dr. Renato Morais will explore the prominent role of the broader seascape in shaping the productivity of tropical reefs. His research will explicitly incorporate space into resource assessments on tropical reefs, quantifying the ‘energetic footprint’ of animal biomass, links with the surrounding seascape, and determining mechanisms whereby these links are maintained. This project will advance the notion that a holistic understanding of reef productivity should contemplate interacting internal and external pathways that connect photosynthesis to biomass production. It will offer a novel ‘outward concept’ of tropical reef systems, integrating state-of-the-art methods from landscape, movement and reef ecology with mechanistic models from oceanography, food web and meta-ecosystems theory. These newly established links will hopefully pave the way to develop an integrative, predictive theory of biomass production applied to tropical reefs.
Solving the ecosystem puzzle behind the production of biomass on reefs has become paramount at a time of global changes that threaten the very capacity of natural ecosystems to keep providing critical resources to humans. Ultimately, Dr. Morais’ fellowship aims to contribute fundamental, but tangible, knowledge that may help to navigate tropical fisheries through the challenges of an ever-changing world.
