Are coral reefs victims of their own past success?
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Renema W
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4846430 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Are coral reefs victims of their own past success?
Renema Willem W Pandolfi John M JM Kiessling Wolfgang W Bosellini Francesca R FR Klaus James S JS Korpanty Chelsea C Rosen Brian R BR Santodomingo Nadiezhda N Wallace Carden C CC Webster Jody M JM Johnson Kenneth G KG
Science advances 20160422 4
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 si ...[more]
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