The coral holobiont model highlights the integral role bacteria play in the health of reefbuilding corals. Documenting the natural diversity of bacterial communities within, and closely associated with, coral tissues provides information on the diversity, interaction and roles of bacteria to the function of reef-building corals. Fluorescence in situ hybridisation was used to visualise bacterial...

Reef ecosystems built during successive periods of Pleistocene sea level rise have shown remarkable persistence in coral community structure, but little is known of the ecological characteristics of reef communities during periods of low sea stands or sea level falls. We sampled the relative species abundance of coral, benthic foraminifera, and calcareous red algae communities from eight submer...

The establishment of no-take marine protected areas (MPAs) on coral reefs is a common management strategy for conserving the diversity, abundance, and biomass of reef organisms. Generally, well-managed and enforced MPAs can increase or maintain the diversity and function of the enclosed coral reef, with some of the benefits extending to adjacent non-protected reefs. A fundamental question in co...

This paper constitutes the first qualitative study of coral reef fish populations in the archipelago of the Glorieuses Islands (northern Mozambique Channel). Sampling by visual census techniques, at depths between 0 and 15 meters, was carried out at 30 stations spread over the whole reef. Three hundred and thirty-two (332) fish species belonging to 57 families were registered in this way. These...

Topographic structural complexity of a reef is highly correlated to coral growth rates, coral cover and overall levels of biodiversity, and is therefore integral in determining ecological processes. Modeling these processes commonly includes measures of rugosity obtained from a wide range of different survey techniques that often fail to capture rugosity at different spatial scales. Here we sho...

Citation: Einbinder S, Gruber DF, Salomon E, Liran O, Keren N and Tchernov D (2016) Novel Adaptive Photosynthetic Characteristics of Mesophotic Symbiotic Microalgae within the Reef-Building Coral, Stylophora pistillata. Front. Mar. Sci. 3:195. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2016.00195 Novel Adaptive Photosynthetic Characteristics of Mesophotic Symbiotic Microalgae within the Reef-Building Coral, Stylophora...

Citation: Lantz CA, Carpenter RC, Comeau S and Edmunds PJ (2017) Organisms Composing an Experimental Coral Reef Community from Mo’orea, French Polynesia, Exhibit Taxon-Specific Net Production: Net Calcification Ratios. Front. Mar. Sci. 4:298. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00298 Organisms Composing an Experimental Coral Reef Community from Mo’orea, French Polynesia, Exhibit Taxon-Specific Net Producti...

Citation: Rosset S, D’Angelo C and Wiedenmann J (2015) Ultrastructural Biomarkers in Symbiotic Algae Reflect the Availability of Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients and Particulate Food to the Reef Coral Holobiont. Front. Mar. Sci. 2:103. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2015.00103 Ultrastructural Biomarkers in Symbiotic Algae Reflect the Availability of Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients and Particulate Food to the Re...

There is a long-standing debate whether mangrove and seagrass habitats in the IndoPacific region function as nurseries for coral reef fishes. We studied the use of all major shallow-water habitat types by juvenile coral reef fish using visual census surveys at 4 islands along the Tanzanian coast (East Africa) and at the island of Grande Comoros (Comoros archipelago). We investigated the value o...

REEFS AND PEOPLE AT RISK Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere put shallow, warm-water coral reef ecosystems, and the people who depend upon them at risk from two key global environmental stresses: 1) elevated sea surface temperature (that can cause coral bleaching and related mortality), and 2) ocean acidification. These global stressors: cannot be avoided by local management, ...