Because seaweeds uncontrolled by herbivores can overgrow and kill corals, competition can exclude corals from temperate latitudes where herbivores generally fail to control seaweed biomass. In this study, we show that the coral Oculina arbuscula persists on reefs in temperate North Carolina where seaweeds are common by harboring the omnivorous crab Mithrax forceps, which removes seaweeds and in...

Macroalgal blooms of Ulva lactuca and Hypnea musciformis have been problematic in shallow coastal waters around agricultural and urbanized regions of Maui, Hawai‘i for decades. Observations have highlighted the correspondence between these blooms and elevated nutrient levels from the adjacent land-use, however little evidence exists regarding the effects of nutrient enrichment on the blooming a...

It has been argued that recent phase-shifts towards algal dominance in the Caribbean could have a profoundly negative influence on the future survival of settling corals. In the lower Florida Keys, USA, we used field surveys in areas with recovering populations of the formerly abundant herbivorous black urchin Diadema antillarum (philippi, 1845) and comparatively stable populations of the urchi...

In this study I investigated the hypothesis that alterations in macroalgal cover significantly influenced the growth rates of coral colonies on the fringing reefs of Discovery Bay, Jamaica. For colonies of Montastrea annularis, Porites astreoides, and Sidastrea siderea, radial growth rates were significantly (p<0.02) higher at Dairy Bull (where Diadema antillarum had removed macroalgal cover) t...