[Coral-List] Bioturbulence Proven as a Factor in Ocean Mixing and it's Implications

[David Blakeway]

I’m unaware of specific research on that fish/coral bioturbulence but it sounds reasonable.
Shashar, Cohen, & Loya 1993 showed the very thin (~2mm) diffusive boundary layers around coral colonies are prone to oxygen supersaturation in daylight and anoxia at night.
Turbulence from fish swimming and finning would likely help to moderate those extremes (though the fish would also be consuming oxygen).
N. Shashar, Y. Cohen, and Y. Loya (1993). Extreme diel fluctuations of oxygen in the diffusive boundary layers surrounding stony corals. Biol. Bull. 185: 455-461