Quantifying coral morphology

Zawada, KJA; Dornelas, M; Madin, JS

Quantifying coral morphology

Zawada, KJA Dornelas, M Madin, JS

Permalink

Publisher:: SPRINGER
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Coral Reefs, 2019, 38, (6), pp. 1281-1292
Issue Date:: 2019-12-01

Open Access

Copyright Clearance Process

Recently Added
In Progress
Open Access

This item is open access.

Adobe PDF

Download Published versionAdobe PDF (1.29 MB)

View on publisher's site

View statistics

Full metadata record

Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Zawada, KJA
dc.contributor.author	Dornelas, M
dc.contributor.author	Madin, JS
dc.date.accessioned	2022-09-11T08:56:03Z
dc.date.available	2022-09-11T08:56:03Z
dc.date.issued	2019-12-01
dc.identifier.citation	Coral Reefs, 2019, 38, (6), pp. 1281-1292
dc.identifier.issn	0722-4028
dc.identifier.issn	1432-0975
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/161657
dc.description.abstract	Coral morphology has important implications across scales, from differences in physiology, to the environments they are found, through to their role as ecosystem engineers. However, quantifying morphology across taxa is difficult, and so morphological variation is typically captured via coarse growth form categories (e.g. arborescent and massive). In this study, we develop an approach for quantifying coral morphology by identifying continuous three-dimensional shape variables. To do so, we contrast six variables estimated from 152 laser scans of coral colonies that ranged across seven growth form categories and three orders of magnitude of size. We found that 88% of the variation in shape was captured by two principal components. The main component was variation in volume compactness (cf. convexity), and the second component was a trade-off between surface complexity and top-heaviness. Variation in volume compactness also limited variation along the second axis, where surface complexity and top-heaviness ranged more freely when compactness was low. Traditional growth form categories occupied distinct regions within this morphospace; however, these regions overlapped due to scaling of shape variables with colony size. Nonetheless, with four of the shape variables we were able to predict traditional growth form categories with 70 to 95% accuracy, suggesting that the continuous variables captured most of the qualitative variations implied by these growth forms. Distilling coral morphology into continuous variables that capture shape variation will allow for better tests of the mechanisms that govern coral biology, ecology and ecosystem services such as reef building and provision of habitat.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	SPRINGER
dc.relation.ispartof	Coral Reefs
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1007/s00338-019-01842-4
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject	04 Earth Sciences, 05 Environmental Sciences, 06 Biological Sciences
dc.subject.classification	Marine Biology & Hydrobiology
dc.title	Quantifying coral morphology
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	38
utslib.for	04 Earth Sciences
utslib.for	05 Environmental Sciences
utslib.for	06 Biological Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Provost
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Provost/TD School
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
dc.date.updated	2022-09-11T08:55:52Z
pubs.issue	6
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	38
utslib.citation.issue	6

Abstract:

Coral morphology has important implications across scales, from differences in physiology, to the environments they are found, through to their role as ecosystem engineers. However, quantifying morphology across taxa is difficult, and so morphological variation is typically captured via coarse growth form categories (e.g. arborescent and massive). In this study, we develop an approach for quantifying coral morphology by identifying continuous three-dimensional shape variables. To do so, we contrast six variables estimated from 152 laser scans of coral colonies that ranged across seven growth form categories and three orders of magnitude of size. We found that 88% of the variation in shape was captured by two principal components. The main component was variation in volume compactness (cf. convexity), and the second component was a trade-off between surface complexity and top-heaviness. Variation in volume compactness also limited variation along the second axis, where surface complexity and top-heaviness ranged more freely when compactness was low. Traditional growth form categories occupied distinct regions within this morphospace; however, these regions overlapped due to scaling of shape variables with colony size. Nonetheless, with four of the shape variables we were able to predict traditional growth form categories with 70 to 95% accuracy, suggesting that the continuous variables captured most of the qualitative variations implied by these growth forms. Distilling coral morphology into continuous variables that capture shape variation will allow for better tests of the mechanisms that govern coral biology, ecology and ecosystem services such as reef building and provision of habitat.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/161657