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Are coral reefs victims of their own past success?
- Source :
- Science Advances
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2016.
-
Abstract
- Pleistocene sea-level change transformed staghorn corals into prolific reef builders that are sensitive to anthropogenic stressors.<br />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 1.8 million years ago. High growth rates and propagation by fragmentation have favored staghorn corals since this time. In contrast, staghorn corals are among the most vulnerable corals to anthropogenic stressors, with marked global loss of abundance worldwide. The continued decline in staghorn coral abundance and the mounting challenges from both local stress and climate change will limit the coral reefs’ ability to provide ecosystem services.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Coral
Climate Change
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Acropora
Animals
Humans
14. Life underwater
Aquaculture of coral
Reef
coral
Research Articles
Ecosystem
Staghorn coral
geography
Multidisciplinary
geography.geographical_feature_category
biology
Ecology
Resilience of coral reefs
Coral Reefs
010604 marine biology & hydrobiology
fungi
anthropogenic stress
technology, industry, and agriculture
SciAdv r-articles
Coral reef
biochemical phenomena, metabolism, and nutrition
biology.organism_classification
Anthozoa
population characteristics
staghorn coral
Environmental issues with coral reefs
geographic locations
Research Article
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 23752548
- Volume :
- 2
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Science Advances
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....5eea109af837cbeb5daa051be4854eb8