Symbiotic scleractinian corals are particularly affected by climate change stress and respond by bleaching (losing their symbiotic dinoflagellate partners). Recently, the energetic status of corals is emerging as a particularly important factor that determines the corals' vulnerability to heat stress. However, detailed studies of coral energetic that trace the flow of carbon from symbionts to h...

Reef corals typically contain a number of pigments, mostly due to their symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic dinoflagellates. These pigments usually vary in presence and concentration and influence the spectral characteristics of corals. We studied the variations in pigment composition among seven Caribbean shallow-water Scleractinian corals by means of High Performance Liquid Chromatogra...

Coral bleaching is often characterized by high spatial variation across reef systems. Using a field survey and manipulative experiment, we tested whether the physical structure of coral reefs modifies environmental conditions that, in turn, influence spatial variation in bleaching in 3 scleractinian corals, Pocillopora verrucosa, Acropora elseyi, and Porites rus. Corals inhabit mainly the hard-...

New technologies for culturing and settling scleractinian coral larvae in the field are required to elucidate the role of recruitment in population dynamics and to provide options for reef rehabilitation. Natural multi-species aggregations of coral embryos, which frequently form slicks on the sea surface after large-scale annual spawnings, were identified as a potential resource for mass coral ...

Tropical coral reefs feature extraordinary biodiversity and high productivity rates in oligotrophic waters. Due to increasing frequencies of perturbations--anthropogenic and natural--many reefs are under threat. Such perturbations often have devastating effects on these unique ecosystems and especially if they occur simultaneously and amplify each other's impact, they might trigger a phase shif...

Ocean acidification (OA) is expected to negatively affect coral reefs, however little is known about how OA will change the coral-algal symbiosis on which reefs ultimately depend. This study investigated whether there would be differences in coral Symbiodinium types in response to OA, potentially improving coral performance. We used denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of the internal...

Coral reefs are under increasing pressure from anthropogenic and climate-induced stressors. The ability of reefs to reassemble and regenerate after disturbances (i.e., resilience) is largely dependent on the capacity of herbivores to prevent macroalgal expansion, and the replenishment of coral populations through larval recruitment. Currently there is a paucity of this information for higher la...

Bacterial diseases affecting scleractinian corals pose an enormous threat to the health of coral reefs, yet we still have a limited understanding of the bacteria associated with coral diseases. White band disease is a bacterial disease that affects the two Caribbean acroporid corals, the staghorn coral Acropora cervicornis and the elkhorn coral A. palmate. Species of Vibrio and Rickettsia have ...

Disease epidemics have caused extensive damage to tropical coral reefs and to the reef-building corals themselves, yet nothing is known about the abilities of the coral host to resist disease infection. Understanding the potential for natural disease resistance in corals is critically important, especially in the Caribbean where the two ecologically dominant shallow-water corals, Acropora cervi...

The release of organic matter (OM) by scleractinian corals represents a key physiological process that importantly contributes to coral reef ecosystem functioning, and is affected by inorganic nutrient availability. Although OM fluxes have been studied for several dominant reef taxa, no information is available for soft corals, one of the major benthic groups in tropical reef environments. Thus...