[Coral-List] Recruitment failure for the vast majority of coral species

gabriele.guerrini86 at gmail.com gabriele.guerrini86 at gmail.com
Thu Sep 3 14:18:23 UTC 2020


Dear Members,

The biodiversity of the 'reefs of tomorrow' is a critical issue primarily
when considering climate change impacts, a topic that is highly relevant for
coral reefs, as many corals have extended life spans that may mask
transitions to less desirable reef statuses for decades and more.

By assessing coral recruitment once a month for 4 consecutive years
(recruited on tiles and stones), we revealed a dramatic discrepancy in coral
species recruited (total n=15) compared to adult-species currently on site
(n=55), with just 1-2 dominant species accounting for ?80% of recruits.

Article: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-020-01998-4

These results have direct reef management implications, as the unnoticed
shifts and reduced reef biodiversity via coral recruits may endorse a false
sense of resilience, amiss management acts. It is thus advisable to further
explore recruitment diversity together with environmental parameters in
other coral reefs, to better understand shifts in coral recruitment and for
the purpose of developing an improved reef management toolkit.

 

Sincerely, 

Gabriele Guerrini, PhD student

 

"The future belongs to those who belives in the beauty of their dreams."

Eleanor Roosevelt

 

 



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