Topographic structural complexity of a reef is highly correlated to coral growth rates, coral cover and overall levels of biodiversity, and is therefore integral in determining ecological processes. Modeling these processes commonly includes measures of rugosity obtained from a wide range of different survey techniques that often fail to capture rugosity at different spatial scales. Here we sho...

This paper constitutes the first qualitative study of coral reef fish populations in the archipelago of the Glorieuses Islands (northern Mozambique Channel). Sampling by visual census techniques, at depths between 0 and 15 meters, was carried out at 30 stations spread over the whole reef. Three hundred and thirty-two (332) fish species belonging to 57 families were registered in this way. These...

Citation: Einbinder S, Gruber DF, Salomon E, Liran O, Keren N and Tchernov D (2016) Novel Adaptive Photosynthetic Characteristics of Mesophotic Symbiotic Microalgae within the Reef-Building Coral, Stylophora pistillata. Front. Mar. Sci. 3:195. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2016.00195 Novel Adaptive Photosynthetic Characteristics of Mesophotic Symbiotic Microalgae within the Reef-Building Coral, Stylophora...

Citation: Rosset S, D’Angelo C and Wiedenmann J (2015) Ultrastructural Biomarkers in Symbiotic Algae Reflect the Availability of Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients and Particulate Food to the Reef Coral Holobiont. Front. Mar. Sci. 2:103. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2015.00103 Ultrastructural Biomarkers in Symbiotic Algae Reflect the Availability of Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients and Particulate Food to the Re...

There is a long-standing debate whether mangrove and seagrass habitats in the IndoPacific region function as nurseries for coral reef fishes. We studied the use of all major shallow-water habitat types by juvenile coral reef fish using visual census surveys at 4 islands along the Tanzanian coast (East Africa) and at the island of Grande Comoros (Comoros archipelago). We investigated the value o...

REEFS AND PEOPLE AT RISK Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere put shallow, warm-water coral reef ecosystems, and the people who depend upon them at risk from two key global environmental stresses: 1) elevated sea surface temperature (that can cause coral bleaching and related mortality), and 2) ocean acidification. These global stressors: cannot be avoided by local management, ...

Coral reefs are commonly associated with oligotrophic, well-illuminated waters. In 2013, a healthy coral reef was discovered in one of the least expected places within the Colombian Caribbean: at the entrance of Cartagena Bay, a highly-polluted system that receives industrial and sewage waste, as well as high sediment and freshwater loads from an outlet of the Magdalena River (the longest and m...

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...

Citation: Lantz CA, Carpenter RC, Comeau S and Edmunds PJ (2017) Organisms Composing an Experimental Coral Reef Community from Mo’orea, French Polynesia, Exhibit Taxon-Specific Net Production: Net Calcification Ratios. Front. Mar. Sci. 4:298. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00298 Organisms Composing an Experimental Coral Reef Community from Mo’orea, French Polynesia, Exhibit Taxon-Specific Net Producti...

There has been substantial recent change in coral reef communities. To date, most analyses have focussed on static patterns or changes in single variables such as coral cover. However, little is known about how community-level changes occur at large spatial scales. Here, we develop Markov models of annual changes in coral and macroalgal cover in the Caribbean and Great Barrier Reef (GBR) region...