“…What, then, explains the unambiguous increases in algae that are seen Caribbean-wide? Recent reviews of the role of nutrient enrichment on coral reef decline (Szmant 2002) and the relationships among nutrients, algae, and competition between algae and corals (McCook 2001;McCook, Jompa, and Diaz-Pulido 2001) suggest that the increased abundance of algae is not due to nutrients but instead is explained by the availability of new substrate for algal colonization following coral mortality (Aronson and Precht 2001b;Williams, Polunin, and Hendrick 2001;McManus and Polsenberg 2004). The role of herbivores is clearly also a factor in explaining increased algal abundance on reefs in Florida, from the demise of D. antillarum throughout the Caribbean (Lessios 1988), to observations that an inverse relationship exists between algae and herbivorous fish biomass surveyed on 19 reefs throughout the Caribbean .…”