Community structure of coral reefs on opposite sides of the isthmus of panama

Competition for space amon reef corals includes interspecific destruction by extracoelenteric digestion., rapid growth. and Overtopping. No Caribbean species excela in all strategies, and on western Caribbean coral reefs there is a positive correlation between coral abudance and diversity. On eastern Pacific coral reefs, however. Pocillopora damicornis excludes other corals, and on these reefs there is an inverse relation between coral abundance and diversity, except in areas where distrubances, such as Acanthaster predation offset space monopolization.     

Climate change,human impacts,and the resilience of coral reefs

The diversity, frequency, and scale of human impacts on coral reefs are increasing to the extent that reefs are threatened globally. Projected increases in carbon dioxide and temperature over the next 50 years exceed the conditions under which coral reefs have flourished over the past half-million years. However, reefs will change rather than disappear entirely, with some species already showing far greater tolerance to climate change and coral bleaching than others. International integration of management strategies that support reef resilience need to be vigorously implemented, and complemented by strong policy decisions to reduce the rate of global warming.     

潜水旅游对珊瑚礁生态系统影响研究的进展

早期潜水活动曾被认为是一种经济价值高且对珊瑚礁影响较小的生态旅游项目,但随着潜水旅游逐渐盛行,诸多研究结果表明,全世界潜水区的珊瑚礁均出现了不同程度的退化,一些热门潜水旅游区每年接纳的游客数量甚至远超出珊瑚礁的生态承受极限.笔者对与珊瑚礁生态系统与潜水旅游承载能力相关的研究结果进行了统计分析,总结了潜水活动影响珊瑚礁的...     

Acanthaster: effect on coral reef growth in panama

Analysis of data on coral abundance and growth, and the population size (26 individuals per hectare) and feeding rate of Acanthaster indicates that Pocillopora reefs on the Pacific coast of Panama are undergoing vigorous growth in the presence of this predator. Prediction of the effects of a population increase in Acanthaster to plague proportions (2.5 times that presently observed) suggests that reefs could still maintain a positive growth. However, Acanthaster at ten times the present population density would lead to rapid destruction of reefs. It is argued that coral destruction due to Acanthaster represents only one of several factors affecting coral reef progression.     

南海重要珊瑚礁过渡性水域软骨鱼类的组成与分布

2004年5—7月和2005年3—4月采用深水三重刺网在南海的羚羊礁、华光礁、银砾滩、东岛、滨湄滩、排洪滩、本固暗沙、比微暗沙、武勇暗沙、海鸠暗沙、双子群礁、中业群礁、鲎藤礁、美济礁、仁爱礁、仙宾礁、南方浅滩、棕滩、大渊滩、永署礁、南薰礁、牛轭礁、道明群礁等23座重要珊瑚礁过渡性水域进行了2个航次专业调查，其中有21座岛礁共渔获到7目15科33种408尾软骨鱼类，而美济礁和南方浅滩没有渔获到软骨鱼类。根据调查资料，通过物种各分类阶元的分布、优势度（IRI）和单位努力量渔获量等几个方面分析南海重要珊瑚礁过渡性水域软骨鱼类的组成与分布，旨在为南海珊瑚礁渔业资源的开发和管理提供科学依据。结果表明，西沙群岛的重量单位努力量渔获量范围为73～499kg／10^4m^2，其优势种类是迈氏条尾虹、灰六鳃鲨和黑梢真鲨；中沙群岛的重量单位努力量渔获量范围为114～245kg／10^4m^2，其优势种类是迈氏条尾虹、灰三齿鲨；南沙群岛除了美济礁和南方浅滩外其重量单位努力量渔获量范围为51～846kg／10^4m^2，其优势种类是黑梢真鲨、灰三齿鲨。     

Homeward sound

Despite spending weeks at sea as larvae, potentially scattered over many kilometers, young coral reef fish find suitable settlement habitat and in some cases return to their natal reefs. We report that some dominant families of larval reef fish use the sounds made by fish and shrimp resident on reefs to help them locate and settle on reefs and that some fish groups use specific components of the reef sound to guide their behavior. These findings could offer potential for active management of reef fisheries.     

南海重要珊瑚礁过渡性水域软骨鱼类的组成与分布

2004年5—7月和2005年3—4月采用深水三重刺网在南海的羚羊礁、华光礁、银砾滩、东岛、滨湄滩、排洪滩、本固暗沙、比微暗沙、武勇暗沙、海鸠暗沙、双子群礁、中业群礁、鲎藤礁、美济礁、仁爱礁、仙宾礁、南方浅滩、棕滩、大渊滩、永署礁、南薰礁、牛轭礁、道明群礁等23座重要珊瑚礁过渡性水域进行了2个航次专业调查，其中有21座岛礁共渔获到7目15科33种408尾软骨鱼类，而美济礁和南方浅滩没有渔获到软骨鱼类。根据调查资料，通过物种各分类阶元的分布、优势度（IRI）和单位努力量渔获量等几个方面分析南海重要珊瑚礁过渡性水域软骨鱼类的组成与分布，旨在为南海珊瑚礁渔业资源的开发和管理提供科学依据。结果表明，西沙群岛的重量单位努力量渔获量范围为73～499kg／10^4m^2，其优势种类是迈氏条尾虹、灰六鳃鲨和黑梢真鲨；中沙群岛的重量单位努力量渔获量范围为114～245kg／10^4m^2，其优势种类是迈氏条尾虹、灰三齿鲨；南沙群岛除了美济礁和南方浅滩外其重量单位努力量渔获量范围为51～846kg／10^4m^2，其优势种类是黑梢真鲨、灰三齿鲨。     

Growth of Western Australian corals in the anthropocene

Anthropogenic increases of atmospheric carbon dioxide lead to warmer sea surface temperatures and altered ocean chemistry. Experimental evidence suggests that coral calcification decreases as aragonite saturation drops but increases as temperatures rise toward thresholds optimal for coral growth. In situ studies have documented alarming recent declines in calcification rates on several tropical coral reef ecosystems. We show there is no widespread pattern of consistent decline in calcification rates of massive Porites during the 20th century on reefs spanning an 11° latitudinal range in the southeast Indian Ocean off Western Australia. Increasing calcification rates on the high-latitude reefs contrast with the downward trajectory reported for corals on Australia's Great Barrier Reef and provide additional evidence that recent changes in coral calcification are responses to temperature rather than ocean acidification.     

ENSO drove 2500-year collapse of eastern Pacific coral reefs

Cores of coral reef frameworks along an upwelling gradient in Panamá show that reef ecosystems in the tropical eastern Pacific collapsed for 2500 years, representing as much as 40% of their history, beginning about 4000 years ago. The principal cause of this millennial-scale hiatus in reef growth was increased variability of the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and its coupling with the Intertropical Convergence Zone. The hiatus was a Pacific-wide phenomenon with an underlying climatology similar to probable scenarios for the next century. Global climate change is probably driving eastern Pacific reefs toward another regional collapse.     

Projecting coral reef futures under global warming and ocean acidification

Many physiological responses in present-day coral reefs to climate change are interpreted as consistent with the imminent disappearance of modern reefs globally because of annual mass bleaching events, carbonate dissolution, and insufficient time for substantial evolutionary responses. Emerging evidence for variability in the coral calcification response to acidification, geographical variation in bleaching susceptibility and recovery, responses to past climate change, and potential rates of adaptation to rapid warming supports an alternative scenario in which reef degradation occurs with greater temporal and spatial heterogeneity than current projections suggest. Reducing uncertainty in projecting coral reef futures requires improved understanding of past responses to rapid climate change; physiological responses to interacting factors, such as temperature, acidification, and nutrients; and the costs and constraints imposed by acclimation and adaptation.     

Spongivory in hawksbill turtles: a diet of glass

The hawksbill(Eretmochelys imbricata), an endangered marine turtle associated with coral reefs throughout the tropics, feeds almost exclusively on sponges in the Caribbean, and possibly throughout its range. It is one of fewer than a dozen vertebrates that are known to specialize on this widely distributed but well-defended food resource. The diet is taxonomically narrow and highly uniform geographically, includes sponges that are toxic to other vertebrates, and contains more silica than that of other vertebrates. By affecting space competition, spongivory by hawksbills may influence succession and diversity of reef communities.     

Localized dispersal and recruitment in great barrier reef corals: the helix experiment

To examine the problem of how far coral larvae disperse from their natal reef, coral recruitment densities were experimentally determined at distances up to 5 kilometers from a small, relatively isolated platform reef, Helix Reef, on the central Great Barrier Reef for 7 months. High concentrations of recruits, accounting for up to 40 percent of all recruitment, were found downstream of the reef in areas of high water residence time, suggesting that near-field(proximal) circulation has a profound influence on dispersal and recruitment of coral larvae. Coral recruitment declined logarithmically with distance from the reef, decreasing by an order of magnitude at radial distances of only 600 to 1200 meters. On an ecological time scale, advective dispersal of semipassive marine larvae with relatively short planktonic lives(minimally days) may be extensive, but success of recruitment is highly limited. Through evolutionary time, sufficient dispersal occurs to ensure gene flow to reef tracts hundreds or possibly thousands of kilometers apart. In the short term, however, coral reefs appear to be primarily self-seeded with respect to coral larvae.     

Global trajectories of the long-term decline of coral reef ecosystems

Degradation of coral reef ecosystems began centuries ago, but there is no global summary of the magnitude of change. We compiled records, extending back thousands of years, of the status and trends of seven major guilds of carnivores, herbivores, and architectural species from 14 regions. Large animals declined before small animals and architectural species, and Atlantic reefs declined before reefs in the Red Sea and Australia, but the trajectories of decline were markedly similar worldwide. All reefs were substantially degraded long before outbreaks of coral disease and bleaching. Regardless of these new threats, reefs will not survive without immediate protection from human exploitation over large spatial scales.     

西沙群岛海域砗磲资源的调查

砗磲是珊瑚岛礁的构成物种,对维护珊瑚礁生态系统平衡起着重要作用。近年来,由于非法捕捞和海洋生态环境影响,对我国西沙砗磲资源造成严重威胁。为掌握西沙海域砗磲资源现状,笔者于2017年6—7月采用截线样带法,对西沙主要岛礁海域砗磲的种类、分布及其与环境相关性进行了分析。结果显示,调查海域共发现4种砗磲：鳞砗磲(Tridacna squamosa)、长砗磲(T.maxima)、番红砗磲(T.crocea)和砗蚝(Hippopus hippopus),分别占总数的71.9%、15.6%、9.4%和3.1%。西沙不同岛礁海域砗磲密度、物种多样性指数存在显著差异,砗磲平均密度为0.026个·m^-2。砗磲密度与珊瑚覆盖率呈显著正相关(P<0.05,R²=0.706 5),表明珊瑚覆盖率是影响砗磲分布的重要因素。     

Nitrogen fixation in a coral reef community

Algal reef flats at Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands, fix atmospheric nitrogen at rates comparable to those in managed agriculture. The dominant nitrogen fixer appears to be the blue-green alga Calothrix crustacea. Since this nutrient enrichment contributes to the high productivity of adjacent coral reefs and undoubtedly to atoll lagoons, it is recommended that the algal reef flats receive increased conservation priority.     

Dimethylsulfoniopropionate as a foraging cue for reef fishes

Coral reefs resemble islands of productive habitats where fishes aggregate, forage, and spawn. Although it has been suggested that some reef fishes use biogenic chemicals as aggregation cues, specific chemicals have not been identified. Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), a secondary metabolite of many marine algal species, is released during foraging by higher-order consumers. DMSP has been studied intensively for its role in oceanic sulfur cycles and global climate regulation, but its ecological importance to marine fishes is unknown. We present evidence that planktivorous reef fishes will aggregate to experimental deployments of DMSP over coral reef habitats in the wild.     

Impact of CLOD Pathogen on Pacific Coral Reefs

A bacterial pathogen of coralline algae was initially observed during June 1993 and now occurs in South Pacific reefs that span a geographic range of at least 6000 kilometers. The occurrence of the coralline algal pathogen at Great Astrolabe Reef sites (Fiji) increased from zero percent in 1992 to 100 percent in 1993, which indicates that the pathogen may be in an early stage of virulence and dispersal. Because of the important role played by coralline algae in reef building, this pathogen, designated coralline lethal orange disease (CLOD), has the potential to greatly influence coral reef ecology and reef-building processes.     

Recent brachiopod-coralline sponge communities and their paleoecological significance

Brachiopods and coralline sponges are the dominant taxa of a series of parallel pantropical communities found in cryptic habitats of Recent coral reefs, where these organisms may cover almost the entire available surface area. It is suggested that the continued survival and success of these and other groups of considerable paleontological importance resulted from their occupation of cryptic reef habitats after competition with more rapidly growing hermatypic corals in the Middle Jurassic when scleractinian reefs first appeared.     

Marine biodiversity hotspots and conservation priorities for tropical reefs

Coral reefs are the most biologically diverse of shallow water marine ecosystems but are being degraded worldwide by human activities and climate warming. Analyses of the geographic ranges of 3235 species of reef fish, corals, snails, and lobsters revealed that between 7.2% and 53.6% of each taxon have highly restricted ranges, rendering them vulnerable to extinction. Restricted-range species are clustered into centers of endemism, like those described for terrestrial taxa. The 10 richest centers of endemism cover 15.8% of the world's coral reefs (0.012% of the oceans) but include between 44.8 and 54.2% of the restricted-range species. Many occur in regions where reefs are being severely affected by people, potentially leading to numerous extinctions. Threatened centers of endemism are major biodiversity hotspots, and conservation efforts targeted toward them could help avert the loss of tropical reef biodiversity.     

Coral reefs under rapid climate change and ocean acidification

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is expected to exceed 500 parts per million and global temperatures to rise by at least 2 degrees C by 2050 to 2100, values that significantly exceed those of at least the past 420,000 years during which most extant marine organisms evolved. Under conditions expected in the 21st century, global warming and ocean acidification will compromise carbonate accretion, with corals becoming increasingly rare on reef systems. The result will be less diverse reef communities and carbonate reef structures that fail to be maintained. Climate change also exacerbates local stresses from declining water quality and overexploitation of key species, driving reefs increasingly toward the tipping point for functional collapse. This review presents future scenarios for coral reefs that predict increasingly serious consequences for reef-associated fisheries, tourism, coastal protection, and people. As the International Year of the Reef 2008 begins, scaled-up management intervention and decisive action on global emissions are required if the loss of coral-dominated ecosystems is to be avoided.