The future of coral reefs

Abstract

Coral reefs, with their millions of species, have changed profoundly because of the effects of people, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Reefs are subject to many of the same processes that affect other human-dominated ecosystems, but some special features merit emphasis: ( The fossil record suggests that corals as a group are more likely to suffer extinctions than some of the groups that associate with them, whose habitat requirements may be less stringent.

Importance, Destruction and Recovery of Coral Reefs

“…[28] [28] Another challenge is the successful recruitment of juvenile stony corals, as it is essential for healthy coral reef ecosystems [29], [30]. The challenge here is that when local populations of stony corals are reduced, settlement of new coral recruits is also reduced [31], [32]. Ecological and organismal consequences of increased seawater temperatures have been investigated extensively in reef-building corals ( [33], [34], [35].…”

Ecological Shifts along the Florida Reef Tract: The Past as a Key to the Future

“…Coring studies in Belize and Jamaica have revealed that the regional mass mortality of acroporid corals from WBD was novel on a centennial to millennial scale (Aronson et al 2002a;Wapnick, Precht, and Aronson 2004). The combined effects of the two lethal, essentially concurrent, Caribbean-wide epizootics resulted in what was apparently an unprecedented, regional shift from coral to macroalgal dominance (Knowlton 2001).…”

“…It may well be that reefs with their full complement of trophic levels and resources will be more resilient to disturbances than those that are overexploited (Knowlton 2001), but it remains premature to assume that coral assemblages will automatically recover to historic levels if fish populations are restored.…”

“…and Porites spp. (Hughes 1985(Hughes , 1994Kojis and Quinn 1994;Aronson and Precht 2001c;Edmunds and Carpenter 2001;Knowlton 2001;Cho and Woodley 2002). Many of these brooding species (e.g., P. astreoides), however, are relatively short-lived (Kissling 1977b;Hughes 1985).…”

“…At high intensities, fishing reduces species diversity and can lead to extirpations of not only target species, but other species as well. Most importantly, overfishing interacts with other disturbances such as disease outbreaks in populations of herbivorous sea urchins, reducing the capacity of reefs to recover from natural perturbations such as hurricanes (Hughes 1994;Nyström, Folke, and Moberg 2000;Knowlton 2001;Bellwood et al 2004). …”