In theHawaiianArchipelago, shelter-dependent juvenile stages ofmany reef fishes and their coral habitats are increasingly put at risk by multiple anthropogenic stressors (e.g. overfishing and habitat loss, coral bleaching and sedimentation, respectively).We assessed coral bleaching (to identify relative susceptibility among growth forms) and the use v. availability of structurally complex and s...

Mean coral cover has reportedly declined by over 15% during the last 30 years across the central Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Here, we present new data that documents widespread reef development within the more poorly studied turbid nearshore areas (<10 m depth), and show that coral cover on these reefs averages 38% (twice that reported on mid- and outer-shelf reefs). Of the surveyed seafloor area...

Coral reef ecosystems are at the crossroads. While significant gaps still exist in our understanding of how ‘‘normal’’ reefs work, unprecedented changes in coral reef systems have forced the research community to change its focus from basic research to understand how one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world works to basic research with strong applied implications to alleviate damage, sav...

Cryptobenthic fishes have a significant influence on coral reef ecosystem dynamics; however, they have received considerably less attention than their larger, more conspicuous fish counterparts. In nearby seagrass zones, there is little or no information about cryptobenthic fishes, even for basic parameters such as density and distribution, although smaller organisms may have a substantial effe...

Monitoring o f coral reef bleaching has hitherto been based on regional-scale, in situ data. Larger-scale trends, however, must be determined using satellite-based observations. Using both a radiative transfer simulation and an analysis o f multitemporal Landsat TM images, the ability o f satellite remote sensing to detect and monitor coral reef bleaching is examined. The radiative transfer sim...

This paper reviews our knowledge of 011-pollution effects on coral-reef communities, concentrating on research done since the last review on this subject by Johannes (1975). The review focusses on crude-oil effects on scleractinian corals and octocorals and summarizes the small amount of work conducted on other reef organisms, as well as on the reef flora. Until 1975 there appeared to be no con...

Ocean acidification threatens the survival of coral reef ecosystems worldwide. The negative effects of ocean acidification observed in many laboratory experiments have been seen in studies of naturally low-pH reefs, with little evidence to date for adaptation. Recently, we reported initial data suggesting that low-pH coral communities of the Palau Rock Islands appear healthy despite the extreme...

Coral reef ecosystems thrive in tropical oligotrophic oceans because of the relationship between corals and endosymbiotic dinoflagellate algae called Symbiodinium. Symbiodinium convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into organic carbon and oxygen to fuel coral growth and calcification, creating habitat for these diverse and productive ecosystems. Light is thus a key regulating factor shaping the p...

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch (CRW) program has developed a daily global 5-km product suite based on satellite observations to monitor thermal stress on coral reefs. These products fulfill requests from coral reef managers and researchers for higher resolution products by taking advantage of new satellites, sensors and algorithms. Improvements ...

Coral bleaching is often characterized by high spatial variation across reef systems. Using a field survey and manipulative experiment, we tested whether the physical structure of coral reefs modifies environmental conditions that, in turn, influence spatial variation in bleaching in 3 scleractinian corals, Pocillopora verrucosa, Acropora elseyi, and Porites rus. Corals inhabit mainly the hard-...