Coral reef fishes are in general rather sedentary and territoriality and home range behavior patterns are highly developed. However, many species migrate, often relatively long distances compared to body size and often with spectacular precision. Migrations in reef fishes may be associated with: 1) life history-movements of planktonic larval stages to reefs or movements of juveniles from nurser...

Few studies have assessed the biophysical properties controlling reflection and absorption of light in coral reef environments and their relationships with quantitative measures of reef health and productivity. The present article examines the relationship between spectral reflectance, photosynthetic capacity, and chlorophyll a from common coral reef substrates. Reflectance readings of several ...

Disturbance in coral reef environments commonly results in an algal community dominated by highly productive, small filamentous forms and cyanobacteria, collectively known as algal turf. Research on the types of disturbance responsible for this community structure has concentrated mainly on biological disturbance in the form of grazing, although physical and other forms of biological disturbanc...

Coral reefs are highly dynamic and productive marine ecosystems, providing habitat and refuge for an enormous number of species including fish, invertebrates and algae. With increased anthropogenic pressures and global climate change, many coral reefs are rapidly declining. Currently, there is limited knowledge on condition and community assemblage composition of shallow fringing coral reefs al...

Predicted increases in coral disease outbreaks associated with climate change have implications for coral reef ecosystems and the people and industries that depend on them. It is critical that coral reef managers understand these implications and have the ability to assess and reduce risk, detect and contain outbreaks, and monitor and minimise impacts. Here, we present a coral disease response ...

Citation: Vásquez-Elizondo RM and Enríquez S (2017) Light Absorption in Coralline Algae (Rhodophyta): A Morphological and Functional Approach to Understanding Species Distribution in a Coral Reef Lagoon. Front. Mar. Sci. 4:297. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00297 Light Absorption in Coralline Algae (Rhodophyta): A Morphological and Functional Approach to Understanding Species Distribution in a Coral ...

. Abstract: The benthic communities of fringing and mushroom-shaped shalIow-water reefs of the Abrolhos region (southern coast of Bahia) were surveyed. Line transects were used to estimate coral and alga1 percentage cover. Mussismilia braziliensis is the most conspicuous coral species in the majority of the communities surveyed, but turf algae make up the dominant cover in alI but one studied r...

Regime shifts between alternative stable ecosystem states are becoming commonplace due to the combined effects of local stressors and global climate change. Alternative states are characterized as substantially different in form and function from pre-disturbance states, disrupting the delivery of ecosystem services and functions. On coral reefs, regime shifts are typically characterized by a ch...

Our understanding of ecosystem dynamics is directly linked to the scale at which we make our ecological observations. The ecological dynamics of Pleistocene coral communities varies with spatial and temporal scale of study. Reef coral communities studied over small spatial and temporal scales show ecological chaos where disturbance prevents ecological equilibrium, and those studied at the large...

Modern reef-building corals sustain a wide range of ecosystem services because of their ability to build calcium carbonate reef systems. The influence of environmental variables on coral calcification rates has been extensively studied, but our understanding of their relative importance is limited by the absence of in situ observations and the ability to decouple the interactions between differ...