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.     

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.     

Rapid fluctuations in sea level recorded at huon peninsula during the penultimate deglaciation

About 140,000 years ago, the breakup of large continental ice sheets initiated the Last Interglacial period. Sea level rose and peaked around 135,000 years ago about 14 meters below present levels. A record of Last Interglacial sea levels between 116,000 years to 136, 000 years ago is preserved at reef VII of the uplifted coral terraces of Huon Peninsula in Papua New Guinea. However, corals from a cave situated about 90 meters below the crest of reef VII are 130, 000 +/- 2000 years old and appear to have grown in conditions that were 6 degreesC cooler than those at present. These observations imply a drop in sea level of 60 to 80 meters. After 130,000 years, sea level began rising again in response to the major insolation maximum at 126,000 to 128,000 years ago. The early (about 140,000 years ago) start of the penultimate deglaciation, well before the peak in insolation, is consistent with the Devils Hole chronology.     

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.     

Critical depth for the survival of coral islands: effects on the hawaiian archipelago

Coral islands drown when sea level rise exceeds the maximum potential of coral reefs to grow upward (about 10 millimeters per year). During the Holocene transgression (18,000 years ago to present) sea levels rose at rates of up to 10 to 20 millimeters per year, and most coral island reefs situated deeper than a critical depth of30 to 40 meters below present day sea level drowned. Coral islands that did not drown during the Holocene transgression apparently all developed on antecedent foundations shallower than critical depth. During low stands in sea level during the Pleistocene, these islands were elevated and subject to subaerial erosion. Today, in the Hawaiian Archipelago, the depth of drowned banks is inversely related to summit area; smaller banks are progressively deeper, evidently because of erosional truncation during low sea level stands. Bank summit area may therefore be an important factor determining the failure or success of coral islands.     

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...     

Stone adze compositions and the extent of ancient Polynesian voyaging and trade

The last region on Earth settled by humans during prehistory was East Polynesia. Hawaiian oral histories mention voyaging from Hawai'i to Tahiti and back via the Tuamotus, an open ocean journey of several thousands of kilometers. The trace element and isotope chemistries of a stone adze recovered from the Tuamotu Archipelago are unlike those of sources in central Polynesia but are similar to the Kaho'olawe Island hawaiite, in the Hawaiian Islands, supporting the oral histories. Other adzes collected from the low coral islands of the northwest Tuamotus have sources in the Marquesas, Austral and Society Islands, and the Pitcairn Group, confirming that trade was widespread within East Polynesia.     

Comparative species richness in fluctuating and constant environments: coral-associated decapod crustaceans

The number of decapod species associated with the coral Pocillopora damicornis is compared between two regions on the Pacific coast of Panama which are of the same geologic age but differ in environmental characteristics. The relationship between number of species and coral head size does not differ between the two regions but species composition among coral heads is more variable in the fluctuating environment. Thus there are more species (55 compared to 37) associated with corals in the fluctuating environment than in the constant environment. These data impugn the concept that environmental constancy increases species richness. They support the hypothesis that species equilibrium within habitats is maintained by measurable ecological factors-in this case, the effects of a natural physical disturbance.     

Preindustrial to modern interdecadal variability in coral reef pH

The oceans are becoming more acidic due to absorption of anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The impact of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems is unclear, but it will likely depend on species adaptability and the rate of change of seawater pH relative to its natural variability. To constrain the natural variability in reef-water pH, we measured boron isotopic compositions in a approximately 300-year-old massive Porites coral from the southwestern Pacific. Large variations in pH are found over approximately 50-year cycles that covary with the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation of ocean-atmosphere anomalies, suggesting that natural pH cycles can modulate the impact of ocean acidification on coral reef ecosystems.     

Coral record of equatorial sea-surface temperatures during the penultimate deglaciation at huon peninsula

Uplifted coral terraces at Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea, preserve a record of sea level, sea-surface temperature, and salinity from the penultimate deglaciation. Remnants have been found of a shallow-water reef that formed during a pause, similar to the Younger Dryas, in the penultimate deglaciation at 130,000 +/- 2000 years ago, when sea level was 60 to 80 meters lower than it is today. Porites coral, which grew during this period, has oxygen isotopic values and strontium/calcium ratios that indicate that sea-surface temperatures were much cooler (22 degrees +/- 2 degreesC) than either Last Interglacial or present-day tropical temperatures (29 degrees +/- 1 degreesC). These observations provide further evidence for a major cooling of the equatorial western Pacific followed by an extremely rapid rise in sea level during the latter stages of Termination II.     

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.     

Glycerol excretion by symbiotic algae from corals and tridacna and its control by the host

Zooxanthellae isolated from reef corals and Tridacna crocea incorporate labeled carbon dioxide photosynthetically. In the presence of some component of the host tissue, up to 40 percent of the labeled algal photosynthate is liberated primarily as glycerol. Excretion of glycerol by the algae in situ and its control and utilization by the host may represent a mechanism by which zooxanthellae contribute to produtctivity of coral reefs.     

回头岸礁区4 种造礁珊瑚中可培养细菌的多样性

采用稀释涂布平板法,分离三亚鹿回头岸礁区4种造礁珊瑚及其周围海水中的细菌,并基于16S r RNA基因序列进行了系统发育分析,从而探讨造礁珊瑚中可培养细菌的物种多样性。从澄黄滨珊瑚(Porites lutea)、鹿角珊瑚(Acropora sp.)、盔形珊瑚(Galaxea sp.)、扁脑珊瑚(Platygyra sp.)样品中分别分离获得细菌60、61、54、20株,从珊瑚周边海水中分离获得细菌31株。16S r RNA基因序列分析表明,珊瑚来源的细菌分布于放线菌门(Actinobacteria)、α-变形菌纲(Alphaproteobacteria)、γ-变形菌纲(Gammaproteobacteria)、厚壁菌门(Firmicutes)和拟杆菌门(Bacteroidetes)。在属级水平上对4种珊瑚及海水来源细菌群落组成分析,发现在4种珊瑚中均有分布的属有3个,为Brachybacterium、Microbacterium和Ruegeria,珊瑚来源细菌类群有一定差异。同时发现4种珊瑚来源细菌与海水来源细菌类群差异较大。在分离的菌株中,有7株菌与已有效描述的细菌物种典型菌株的全长16S r RNA基因相似性低于97%,代表着潜在新属或新种。试验结果表明,三亚鹿回头岸礁区珊瑚中存在较为丰富的细菌多样性,并潜藏较多的新物种资源。     

Sea-surface temperature from coral skeletal strontium/calcium ratios

Seasonal records of tropical sea-surface temperature (SST) over the past 10(5) years can be recovered from high-precision measurements of coral strontium/calcium ratios with the use of thermal ionization mass spectrometry. The temperature dependence of these ratios was calibrated with corals collected at SST recording stations and by (18)O/(16)O thermometry. The results suggest that mean monthly SST may be determined with an apparent accuracy of better than 0.5 degrees C. Measurements on a fossil coral indicate that 10,200 years ago mean annual SSTs near Vanuatu in the southwestern Pacific Ocean were about 5 degrees C colder than today and that seasonal variations in SST were larger. These data suggest that tropical climate zones were compressed toward the equator during deglaciation.     

50-Ma initiation of Hawaiian-Emperor bend records major change in Pacific plate motion

The Hawaiian-Emperor bend has played a prominent yet controversial role in deciphering past Pacific plate motions and the tempo of plate motion change. New ages for volcanoes of the central and southern Emperor chain define large changes in volcanic migration rate with little associated change in the chain's trend, which suggests that the bend did not form by slowing of the Hawaiian hot spot. Initiation of the bend near Kimmei seamount about 50 million years ago (MA) was coincident with realignment of Pacific spreading centers and early magmatism in western Pacific arcs, consistent with formation of the bend by changed Pacific plate motion.     

Precise timing of the last interglacial period from mass spectrometric determination of thorium-230 in corals

The development of mass spectrometric techniques for determination of (230)Th abundance has made it possible to reduce analytical errors in (238)U-(234)U-(230)Th dating of corals even with very small samples. Samples of 6 x 10(8) atoms of (230)Th can be measured to an accuracy of +/-3 percent (2sigma) and 3 x 10(10) atoms of (230)Th can be measured to an accuracy of +/-0.2 percent. The time range over which useful age data on corals can be obtained now ranges from about 50 to about 500,000 years. For young corals, this approach may be preferable to (14)C dating. The precision with which the age of a coral can now be determined should make it possible to critically test the Milankovitch hypothesis concerning Pleistocene climate fluctuations. Analyses of a number of corals that grew during the last interglacial period yield ages of 122,000 to 130,000 years. The ages coincide with, or slightly postdate, the summer solar insolation high at 65 degrees N latitude which occurred 128,000 years ago. This supports the idea that changes in Pleistocene climate can be the result of variations in the distribution of solar insolation caused by changes in the geometry of the earth's orbit and rotation axis.     

Coral reef death during the 1997 Indian Ocean Dipole linked to Indonesian wildfires

Geochemical anomalies and growth discontinuities in Porites corals from western Sumatra, Indonesia, record unanticipated reef mortality during anomalous Indian Ocean Dipole upwelling and a giant red tide in 1997. Sea surface temperature reconstructions show that although some past upwelling events have been stronger, there were no analogous episodes of coral mortality during the past 7000 years, indicating that the 1997 red tide was highly unusual. We show that iron fertilization by the 1997 Indonesian wildfires was sufficient to produce the extraordinary red tide, leading to reef death by asphyxiation. These findings highlight tropical wildfires as an escalating threat to coastal marine ecosystems.     

Tropical reef corals: tolerance of low temperatures on the north carolin

Individual heads of two species of reef or herinatypic coral, Solenastrea hyades (Dana) and Siderastrea siderea (Ellis and Solander), occur on rock outcrops on the inner continental shelf off North Carolina in waters where winter bottom temperatures are as low as 10.6 degrees C. These temperatures are significantly lower than previously assumed minimum temperatures for the survival of tropical reef corals in their natural environment.     

Elimination of two reef-building hydrocorals following the 1982-83 el nino warming event

One probable extinction and one range reduction of eastern Pacific reef-building hydrocoral (Millepora) species mark the first documented cases of species eliminations resulting from the worldwide 1980s coral reef bleaching events. Two of 12 Panamanian coral species were eliminated suddenly from their former ranges by prolonged high sea temperatures during the 1982-83 El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation event. Three conditions contributed to their demise: high sensitivity to sea warming, populations confined to a small geographic area, and bathymetric restriction to the euphotic zone (相似文献   

Coral reef growth in the galapagos: limitation by sea urchins

The regular echinoid Eucidaris thouarsii is a conspicuous omnivore on coral bottoms in the Galápagos. Unlike Eucidaris in Panama and mainland Ecuador, Galápagos Eucidaris are large and abundant and graze heavily in the open on live corals day and night. These differences are probably due in large part to more intense predation by fishes on mainland compared with island urchin populations. An assessment of coral growth versus coral attrition from grazing shows that Eucidaris interferes with the establishment of pocilloporid reef frame and therefore reduces reef growth in the Galápagos.