Climate change poses an existential threat to coral reefs. A warmer and more acidic ocean weakens coral ecosystems and increases the intensity of hurricanes. The wind–wave–current interactions during a hurricane deeply change the ocean circulation patterns and hence potentially affect the dispersal of coral larvae and coral disease agents. Here, we modeled the impact of major hurricane Irma (September 2017) on coral larval and stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) connectivity in Florida's Coral Reef. We coupled high‐resolution coastal ocean circulation and wave models to simulate the dispersal of virtual coral larvae and disease agents between thousands of reefs. While being a brief event, our results suggest the passage of hurricane Irma strongly increased the probability of long‐distance exchanges while reducing larval supply. It created new connections that could promote coral resilience but also probably accelerated the spread of SCTLD by about a month. As they become more intense, hurricanes' double‐edged effect will become increasingly pronounced, contributing to increased variability in transport patterns and an accelerated rate of change within coral reef ecosystems.

中文翻译：

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飓风增强了珊瑚的连通性，但也加剧了珊瑚疾病的传播


气候变化对珊瑚礁构成生存威胁。海洋变暖和酸性增强会削弱珊瑚生态系统并增加飓风的强度。飓风期间的风-波-流相互作用深刻改变了海洋环流模式，因此可能影响珊瑚幼虫和珊瑚病原的扩散。在这里，我们模拟了大型飓风艾尔玛（2017 年 9 月）对佛罗里达州珊瑚礁珊瑚幼虫和石珊瑚组织损失病 (SCTLD) 连通性的影响。我们将高分辨率沿海海洋环流和波浪模型结合起来，模拟虚拟珊瑚幼虫和病原在数千个珊瑚礁之间的扩散。虽然是一个短暂的事件，但我们的结果表明，飓风艾尔玛的通过极大地增加了远距离交流的可能性，同时减少了幼虫供应。它创造了新的联系，可以促进珊瑚的恢复能力，但也可能将 SCTLD 的传播速度加快大约一个月。随着飓风变得更加强烈，飓风的双刃效应将变得越来越明显，导致运输模式的变异性增加，珊瑚礁生态系统内的变化速度加快。