Multiple stressors on temperate corals: insights from experimental, observational and modelling studies

13th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS), 19-24 June 2016, Honolulu, Hawaii.-- 1 pageLocal and global disturbances are increasingly affecting marine biota and are of major concern for the management of marine ecosystems worldwide. Understanding how these stressors interact and the resulting cumulative impacts is critical to improve our predictions of the evolution of marine ecosystems in changing oceans. While multiple stressors’ interactions in corals have been mostly assessed in laboratory, the combination of different approaches such as laboratory, observational and modelling studies is essential to better understand and predict the response of these organisms. Our research focuses on the effects of global and local stressors and their interaction on different temperate corals: the coral Cladocora caespitosa and the octocorals Paramuricea clavata and Corallium rubrum. We will show different results from: (1) laboratory experiments studying the interaction between global stressors such as warming and invasive species, (2) field studies of warming and acidification effects and their potential interaction from observations at CO2 vents and other non-acidified sites, and (3) modelling the effects of multiple stressors and the interaction between warming and local stressors such as fishing or recreational diving. The results point out the importance of bearing in mind the synergistic effects of stressors acting at multiple scales when designing and implementing conservation actions at local scale. Finally, we demonstrate how combining all these approaches can help to better foresee the potential effects of global change in reef organismsPeer Reviewe