Climate change-related coral bleaching, i.e., the visible loss of zooxanthellae from the coral host, is increasing in frequency and extent and presents a major threat to coral reefs globally. Coral bleaching has been proposed to involve accelerating light stress of their microalgal endosymbionts via a positive feedback loop of photodamage, symbiont expulsion and excess in vivo light exposure. T...

BACKGROUND Coral reefs degrade globally at an alarming rate, with benthic algae often replacing corals. However, the extent to which benthic algae contribute to coral mortality, and the potential mechanisms involved, remain disputed. Recent laboratory studies suggested that algae kill corals by inducing hypoxia on the coral surface, through stimulated microbial respiration. METHODS/FINDINGS W...

Coral reefs are declining worldwide as a result of many anthropogenic disturbances. This trend is alarming because coral reefs are hotspots of marine biodiversity and considered the ‘rainforests of the sea. As in the rainforest, much of the diversity on a coral reef is cryptic, remaining hidden among the cracks and crevices of structural taxa. Although the cryptofauna make up the majority of a ...

BACKGROUND A variety of human activities have led to the recent global decline of reef-building corals. The ecological, social, and economic value of coral reefs has made them an international conservation priority. The success of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in restoring fish populations has led to optimism that they could also benefit corals by indirectly reducing threats like overfishing, w...

Mesophotic coral ecosystems are extensive light-dependent habitats that typically form between 30 and 150m depth in the tropical oceans. The forces that structure the benthic communities in these ecosystems are poorly understood but this is rapidly changing with technological advances in technical diving and remote observation that allow large-scale scientific investigation. Recent observations...

Biogeological dynamics consist of a combination of community-ecological responses based on individual-species physiological tolerance limits to a dominant environmental stressor and their consequences on carbonate sedimentological properties. This interplay was investigated in coral carpet systems (biostromal coral frameworks) in the southern Arabian Gulf in Abu Dhabi and Dubai (UAE). Five cora...

Coral reef ecosystems are increasingly subject to severe, large-scale disturbances caused by climate change (e.g., coral bleaching) and other more direct anthropogenic impacts. Many of these disturbances cause coral loss and corresponding changes in habitat structure, which has further important effects on abundance and diversity of coral reef fishes. Declines in the abundance and diversity of ...

Rising seawater temperature associated with global climate change is a significant threat to coral health and is linked to increasing coral disease and pathogen-related bleaching events. We performed heat stress experiments with the coral Pocillopora damicornis, where temperature was increased to 31°C, consistent with the 2-3°C predicted increase in summer sea surface maxima. 16S rRNA amplicon ...

Live coral is a key component of the Al Wajh marine reserve in the Red Sea. The management of this reserve is dependent on a sound understanding of the existing spatial distribution of live coral cover and the environmental factors influencing live coral at the landscape scale. This study uses remote-sensing techniques to develop ordinary least squares and spatially lagged autoregressive explan...

Coral reefs are found within a limited range of environmental conditions or tolerance limits. Estimating these limits is a critical prerequisite for understanding the impacts of climate change on the biogeography of coral reefs. Here we used the diagnostic model ReefHab to determine the current environmental tolerance limits for coral reefs and the global distribution of potential coral reef ha...