For my parents, for introducing me to the wonders of coral reefs from an early age and for their everlasting support " Coral reefs are threatened, not doomed – if we can avoid extreme climate change, runoff and over-fishing. Prevention is better than cure, but recovery is possible. The decisions we make now, or don't make, will have profound long-term consequences. " und Alex, die mich zu jeder...

One of the first things that catches the attention of a diver entering the warm waters of the coral reef is the phenomenal diversity, abundance, and beauty of fishes swimming before them. While all organisms on the coral reef are integrated into its overall ecology, fishes are certainly among the more readily observable taxons, and are an extremely important component of overall reef function. ...

Coral mortality has increased in recent decades, making coral recruitment more important than ever in sustaining coral reef ecosystems and contributing to their resilience. This review summarizes existing information on ecological factors affecting scleractinian coral recruitment. Successful recruitment requires the survival of coral offspring through sequential life history stages. Larval avai...

Coral reef fishes are exploited without the knowledge of their sustainability and their possible effect in altering the community structure of a coral reef ecosystem. Alteration of the community structure could cause a decline in the health of coral reefs and its services. We documented the coral community structure, status of live corals and reef fish assemblages in Palk Bay at the reef fishin...

[1] Coral reefs are constructed of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Deposition of CaCO3 (calcification) by corals and other reef organisms is controlled by the saturation state of CaCO3 in seawater (W) and sea surface temperature (SST). Previous studies have neglected the effects of ocean warming in predicting future coral reef calcification rates. In this study we take into account both these effect...

Although coral reefs are renowned biodiversity hotspots it is not known whether they also promote the evolution of exceptional ecomorphological diversity. We investigated this question by analysing a large functional morphological dataset of trophic characters within Labridae, a highly diverse group of fishes. Using an analysis that accounts for species relationships, the time available for div...

Habitat specificity plays a pivotal role in forming community patterns in coral reef fishes, yet considerable uncertainty remains as to the extent of this selectivity, particularly among newly settled recruits. Here we quantified habitat specificity of juvenile coral reef fish at three ecological levels; algal meadows vs. coral reefs, live vs. dead coral and among different coral morphologies. ...

A multi-disciplinary project lead by the U.S. Geological Survey is currently studying the fringing reef off southern Molokai, Hawaii, in an effort to characterize the biological structure and geologic variability of coral reef systems. Wave modeling and field observations were utilized to help understand the physical controls on reef morphology and the distribution of coral species. The morphol...

The threats of wide-scale coral bleaching and reef demise associated with anthropogenic climate change are widely known. Moreover, rates of genetic adaptation and/or changes in the coral-zooxanthella partnerships are considered unlikely to be sufficiently fast for corals to acquire increased physiological resistance to increasing sea temperatures and declining pH. However, it has been suggested...

Coral reefs are consistently and increasingly subject to acute disturbance events that often lead to a reduction in live coral cover with concomitant effects on the diversity and abundance of coral reef fishes. Here we examine changes in both hard coral and reef-fish assemblages over 15 yr following major losses of coral from exposed reefs in 2 widely separated sectors of the Great Barrier Reef...