BACKGROUND Corals worldwide are in decline due to climate change effects (e.g., rising seawater temperatures), pollution, and exploitation. The ability of corals to cope with these stressors in the long run depends on the evolvability of the underlying genetic networks and proteins, which remain largely unknown. A genome-wide scan for positively selected genes between related coral species can ...

Marine invertebrates are particularly vulnerable to climatic anomalies in early life history stages because of the time spent in the water column. Studies have focused on the effect of seawater temperature on fertilization, development, and larval stages in corals; however, none of them show comparative results along an environmental gradient. In this study, we show that temperatures in the ran...

Despite a recent expansion in the geographic extent of coral reproductive research, there remain many regions in the Indo-Pacific where knowledge is limited. For example, Lord Howe Island is the southernmost reef system in the world (31° S); however, very little is known of the reproductive biology of the coral fauna. Here, aspects of the reproductive biology and the timing of reproduction for ...

Although knowledge on the diseases affecting corals has been accumulating exponentially since 2000s, even more effort is required to summarize and guide further investigation. Here, we used Web of Science database review 226 studies published, between 2000 2020, identify major geographic taxonomic gaps in literature, propose future directions for study coral diseases. We classified according oc...

The Persian Gulf is northern part of the ROPME Sea Area (RSA), and is semi-enclosed shallow sea which located in subtropical climate. Measuring is 1000km in length, varying in width 60-340km, and average depth is about 35m and maximum depth is 105m. This research was carried out during 2005-2010 for reviewing the corals status and determination of coral reef habitats distribution in the Persian...

Coral reefs are suffering unprecedented declines in health state on a global scale. Some have suggested that human assisted evolution or gene flow may now be necessary to effectively restore and pre-condition them for future climate change. An understanding of the key metabolic processes corals, including under stressed conditions, would greatly facilitate effective application such interventio...

Dynamics of a coral reef community at Tiao-Shi Reef, southern Taiwan were studied using permanent transects to examine coral recovery and successive cascades to collapse stage resulting from chronic anthropogenic impacts and typhoons. Three distinct zones were recognized within a relatively small study area (250 m across) formerly dominated by large stands of branching Acropora corals. The firs...