Work performed:
Building trait databases for 695 fishes, 97 echinoderm species, 59 algae species, and 81 mollusc species from the literature, and downloading traits for 83 coral genera from an existing source.
Developing trait groups for all taxa, with particular focus on method development. The classification of groups highly depends on the traits used and the method of classification, necessitating a sensitivity analysis of trait groups.
Data collection included surveys of the abundance and biomass of fishes, corals, echinoderms, and benthic patterns in Australia and Japan, complementing and extending earlier collections.
Running analysis quantifying trait-based processes that underpin the tropicalisation of subtropical and temperate shallow marine systems.
Working towards a framework of considering ecological responses to climate change for coral reef taxa in their management.
Results:
TRIM has produced results for all its three objectives, with activities in publication and dissemination still ongoing. The project focussed mostly on the species in the tropical to temperate transition zones in Japan and Australia for the first two objectives. The conservation objective has worked more broadly, focussing on global or general scales. The project found that between 6 to 15 functional groups exist for all taxa examined, with the most useful and statistically robust partitions being around 7 groups. The abundance of these groups responds differently to environmental conditions along the tropical to temperate gradient, with some groups decreasing with latitude (e.g. tropical groups) and others maintaining their abundance, but not their composition, across the gradient. Looking at how these groups’ abundance will change in the future, TRIM finds that the groups of non-habitat builders (fishes, molluscs, echinoderms) lag in their movement behind that of structural taxa (corals, algae).
Under the conservation objective, TRIM has experimented with a triage-type approach to conservation, where we focus on protecting areas with least climate exposure regardless of their biodiversity. This approach addresses climate change challenges, but still ignores the importance of considering ecological responses in climate change management. TRIM’s outputs also include a framework for including ecological responses and multiple climate stressors (not only temperature) in coral reef management, and is quantifying trait-based management options for a coral reef fishery in the Pacific.
