The East Indies Triangle, a relatively small part of the IndoPacific Ocean, is unique in terms of its species diversity and evolutionary importance. Within this area (Fig. 1), the high species diversity of the major groups of marine organisms, such as the fishes, corals, echinoderms and molluscs, is almost unbelievable. Although species from the Triangle have been collected and described since ...

Structural change in both the habitat and reef-associated fish assemblages within spatially managed coral reefs can provide key insights into the benefits and limitations of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). While MPA zoning effects on particular target species are well reported, we are yet to fully resolve the various affects of spatial management on the structure of coral reef communities over d...

Dust has been widely recognised as an important source of nutrients in the marine environment and as a vector for transporting pathogenic microorganisms. Disturbingly, in the wake of a dust storm event along the eastern Australian coast line in 2009, the Continuous Plankton Recorder collected masses of fungal spores and mycelia (~150,000 spores/m³) forming a floating raft that covered a coastal...

Coral reef fishes, like many other marine organisms, are affected by anthropogenic stressors such as fishing and pollution and, owing to climate change, are experiencing increasing water temperatures and ocean acidification. Against the backdrop of these various stressors, a mechanistic understanding of processes governing individual organismal performance is the first step for identifying driv...

Overfishing threatens coral reefs worldwide, yet there is no reliable estimate on the number of reef fishers globally. We address this data gap by quantifying the number of reef fishers on a global scale, using two approaches - the first estimates reef fishers as a proportion of the total number of marine fishers in a country, based on the ratio of reef-related to total marine fish landed value...

Corals are prolific producers of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP). High atmospheric concentrations of the DMSP breakdown product dimethylsulfide (DMS) have been linked to coral reefs during low tides. DMS is a potentially key sulfur source to the tropical atmosphere, but DMS emission from corals during tidal exposure is not well quantified. Here we show that gas phase DMS concentrations (DMSga...

Increased ocean temperature due to climate change is raising metabolic demands and energy requirements of marine ectotherms. If productivity of marine systems and fisheries are to persist, individual species must compensate for this demand through increasing energy acquisition or decreasing energy expenditure. Here we reveal that the most important coral reef fishery species in the Indo-west Pa...

The fisheries and biodiversity benefits of marine reserves are widely recognised but there is mounting interest in exploiting the importance of herbivorous fishes as a tool to help ecosystems recover from climate change impacts. This approach might be particularly suitable for coral reefs, which are acutely threatened by climate change, yet the trophic cascades generated by reserves are strong ...

While coral reefs support more species than any other marine system, coral reef ecology bo"ows heavily from theoretical advances in lowdiversity te"estrial systems. This article reviews recent developments in ecology on coral reefs and weaves together the relevant information within a theoretical framework that aims toward predictive modeling of coral populations and communities. The author beg...

Citizen science can increase the scope of research in the marine environment; however, it suffers from necessitating specialized training and simplified methodologies that reduce research output. This paper presents a simplified, novel survey methodology for citizen scientists, which combines GoPro imagery and structure from motion to construct an ortho-corrected 3D model of habitats for analys...