Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Burkepile DE
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6504825 | biostudies-other | 2013
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
Scientific reports 20130101
On coral reefs, fishes can facilitate coral growth via nutrient excretion; however, as coral abundance declines, these nutrients may help facilitate increases in macroalgae. By combining surveys of reef communities with bioenergetics modeling, we showed that fish excretion supplied 25 times more nitrogen to forereefs in the Florida Keys, USA, than all other biotic and abiotic sources combined. One apparent result was a positive relationship between fish excretion and macroalgal cover on these re ...[more]