Effects of corallivory and coral colony density on coral growth and survival

Abstract A suite of processes drive variation in coral populations space and time, yet our understanding how density affects performance is limited. Theory predicts that reductions can send into a predator pit, where concentrated corallivory maintains corals at low densities. In reality, alters rates poorly resolved. Here, we experimentally quantified the effects on growth survival small colonies staghorn Acropora pulchra . Our findings suggest have strong but independent performance. presence corallivores, suffered high density-independent mortality. When corallivores were excluded, however, vertical extension increased with increasing While found no evidence for results spatio-temporal corallivore densities fundamentally alter population dynamics via juvenile corals.