Larval production and recruitment underpin the maintenance of coral populations, but these early life history stages are vulnerable to extreme variation in physical conditions. Environmental managers aim to minimise human impacts during significant periods of larval production and recruitment on reefs, but doing so requires knowledge of the modes and timing of coral reproduction. Most corals ar...

Outbreaks of coral disease have increased worldwide over the last few decades. Despite this, remarkably little is known about the ecology of disease in the Indo-Pacific Region. Here we report the spatiotemporal dynamics of a coral disease termed 'Acroporid white syndrome' observed to affect tabular corals of the genus Acropora on the southern Great Barrier Reef. The syndrome is characterised by...

Citation: Wu HC, Dissard D, Le Cornec F, Thil F, Tribollet A, Moya A and Douville E (2017) Primary Life Stage Boron Isotope and Trace Elements Incorporation in Aposymbiotic Acropora millepora Coral under Ocean Acidification and Warming. Front. Mar. Sci. 4:129. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00129 Primary Life Stage Boron Isotope and Trace Elements Incorporation in Aposymbiotic Acropora millepora Coral...

The boron isotopic composition (δ11B) of marine carbonates (e.g. corals) is increasingly utilised as a proxy for paleo-pH, with the strong correlation between δ11B of marine calcifiers and seawater pH now well documented. However, the potential roles of other environmental parameters that may also influence both the boron isotopic composition and boron concentration into coral aragonite are poo...

The community structure of hard and soft corals, with an emphasis on hard corals, was determined by means of line-transects on 9 onand off-shore reefs of different type and different wave exposure in the Northern Red Sea near Hurghada in Egypt. Coral communities were found to differentiate along a horizontal windand wave-exposure gradient. Exposed communities were dominated by Acropora species,...

Scientists can now track how cancer spreads, study cells in the retina, or watch HIV infections progress, thanks to the harnessing and development of green fluorescent protein (GFP). It is fair to say GFP has transformed biomedical research. In fact, Martin Chalfie, Osamu Shimomura, and Roger Tsien received the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry for their discovery and development of GFP. Despite se...

Coral recruitment was examined on terracotta tiles deployed for four six-month periods between March 2001 and April 2003 on the West Fore Reef at Discovery Bay, Jamaica. During each sampling period, four tiles were deployed on each of two arrays at six depths ranging from 3 m to 33 m. Only three Acropora spat recruited to the tiles over the sampling period. The Acropora spat recruited during on...

Increasing frequency and severity of disturbances is causing global degradation of coral reef ecosystems. This study examined temporal changes in live coral cover and coral composition in the central Maldives from 1997 to 2016, encompassing two bleaching events, a tsunami, and an outbreak of Acanthaster planci. We also examined the contemporary size structure for five dominant coral taxa (tabul...