Sea Cucumbers: The Excremental Heroes of Coral Reef Ecosystems

Biodiversity and distribution patterns of coral reef ecosystems in ROPME Sea Area (Inner part: Persian Gulf -Iranian waters)

The Persian Gulf is northern part of the ROPME Sea Area (RSA), and is semi-enclosed shallow sea which located in subtropical climate. Measuring is 1000km in length, varying in width 60-340km, and average depth is about 35m and maximum depth is 105m. This research was carried out during 2005-2010 for reviewing the corals status and determination of coral reef habitats distribution in the Persian...

Evolution and Function of Coral Reef Ecosystems

Experimental biology of coral reef ecosystems

Coral reef ecosystems are at the crossroads. While significant gaps still exist in our understanding of how ‘‘normal’’ reefs work, unprecedented changes in coral reef systems have forced the research community to change its focus from basic research to understand how one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world works to basic research with strong applied implications to alleviate damage, sav...

Resetting predator baselines in coral reef ecosystems

What did coral reef ecosystems look like before human impacts became pervasive? Early efforts to reconstruct baselines resulted in the controversial suggestion that pristine coral reefs have inverted trophic pyramids, with disproportionally large top predator biomass. The validity of the coral reef inverted trophic pyramid has been questioned, but until now, was not resolved empirically. We use...

Coral reef ecosystems and anthropogenic climate change

Coral reef ecosystems are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet. In addition to their value in terms of biodiversity, coral reefs provide food and resources for over 500 million people. Despite their importance, coral reefs are declining at a rapid rate (1–2% per year) as a result of a range of local (e.g., overexploitation of fisheries, declining water quality) and globa...