Biogeographic and community response of reef corals to Pleistocene interglacial warming

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Kießling
• Subject Area: Palaeontology ; Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 262067060

Current climate warming and associated stressors are thought to be especially hazardous for tropical coral reef ecosystems. We propose a project to study the response of reef corals to Pleistocene interglacial warming in terms of biogeographic shifts and community changes focusing on the Last Interglacial (LIG). Modern coral distributions serve as a benchmark against which the LIG distributions are tested taking taphonomic biases and sampling issues into account. Our study combines field-based research on selected equatorial reef terraces (Indonesia, Philippines, Kenya) with analyses of global coral occurrence data. The hypotheses to be tested are that (1) the latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) of reef corals is dynamic and governed by climatically induced range shifts; (2) the modern unimodal LDG of reef corals changed to a bimodal pattern during the LIG; (3) latitudinal shifts of reef corals with warming were variable and linked to ecological traits and, (4) climate warming led to changes in community structure.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Australia
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. John Pandolfi; Dr. John Veron