Foraging theory predicts that individuals should choose a prey that maximizes energy rewards relative to the energy expended to access, capture, and consume the prey. However, the relative roles of differences in the nutritive value of foods and costs associated with differences in prey accessibility are not always clear. Coral-feeding fishes are known to be highly selective feeders on particul...

Climate change driven increases in intensity and frequency of both hot and cold extreme events contribute to coral reef decline by causing widespread coral bleaching and mortality. Here, we show that hot and cold temperature changes cause distinct physiological responses on different time scales in reef-building corals. We exposed the branching coral Acropora yongei in individual aquaria to a ±...

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...

A novel symbiosis between scleractinians and hydroids (Zanclea spp.) was recently discovered using taxonomic approaches for hydroid species identification. In this study, we address the question whether this is a species-specific symbiosis or a cosmopolitan association between Zanclea and its coral hosts. Three molecular markers, including mitochondrial 16S and nuclear 28S ribosomal genes, and ...

During an unusual cold-water event in January 2010, reefs along the Florida Reef Tract suffered extensive coral mortality, especially in shallow reef habitats in close proximity to shore and with connections to coastal bays. The threatened staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, is the focus of propagation and restoration activities in Florida and one of the species that exhibited high susceptibi...

As one of the most prolific and widespread reef builders, the staghorn coral Acropora holds a disproportionately large role in how coral reefs will respond to accelerating anthropogenic change. We show that although Acropora has a diverse history extended over the past 50 million years, it was not a dominant reef builder until the onset of high-amplitude glacioeustatic sea-level fluctuations 1....

Growth anomalies (GAs) are common, tumor-like diseases that can cause significant morbidity and decreased fecundity in the major Indo-Pacific reef-building coral genera, Acropora and Porites. GAs are unusually tractable for testing hypotheses about drivers of coral disease because of their pan-Pacific distributions, relatively high occurrence, and unambiguous ease of identification. We modeled ...

This study examines molecular relationships across a wide range of species in the mass spawning scleractinian coral genus Acropora. Molecular phylogenies were obtained for 28 species using DNA sequence analyses of two independent markers, a nuclear intron and the mtDNA putative control region. Although the compositions of the major clades in the phylogenies based on these two markers were simil...

Coral bleaching caused by rising sea temperature is a primary cause of coral reef degradation. However, bleaching patterns often show significant spatial variability, therefore identifying locations where local conditions may provide thermal refuges is a high conservation priority. Coral bleaching mortality often diminishes with increasing depth, but clear depth zonation of coral communities an...

Korallenvergesellschaftungen wurden mittels der Schnurtransekt Methode untersucht. Drei Gesellschaftstypen, welche an bestimmte geomorphologische Eigenschaften ihres Sandsteinsubstrats gebunden waren, worden gefunden. 1) Fossile DUnen wurden zwischen 8 und 24 m Tiefe yon Alcyonacea dominiert. 2) Flache Sandsteinriffe zwischen 18 und 24 m worden yon Scleractinien (vor allem Acropora) dominiert.l...