The chevron butterflyfish Chaetodon trifascialis is an obligate corallivore found on Indo-Pacific coral reefs. The typical northern extent of the distributional range of the chevron butterflyfish overlaps with the occurrence of one of its preferred corals Acropora cytherea on reefs of French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Here I document the occurrence of a single C. trifa...

For marine organisms, decoupling between the planktonic larval stage and the benthic-associated juvenile stage can lead to variable patterns of population replenishment, which have the potential to inXuence the eVectiveness of marine reserves. We measured spatial and temporal variability in larval supply and recruitment of Wshes to coral reefs of diVerent protection levels and tested whether pr...

It was only after an unidentified pathogen caused a mass mortality event, killing an estimated 98% of all individuals, that the true ecological importance of the sea urchin Diadema antillarum was understood. This mass mortality affected the entire Caribbean, all but wiping out this species on coral reefs throughout the region. Unfortunately D. antillarum are important herbivores on Caribbean re...

Outbreaks of the coral-eating crown-of-thorns seastar (Acanthaster cf. solaris) threaten coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific. Movement patterns may play an important role in the spread of outbreak populations, but studies investigating adult movement behavior are scarce. It remains unknown if Acanthaster cf. solaris orientates in inter-reef areas using chemical, visual, or mechanical cues (e.g., wa...

Artificial reefs are considered one of the alternative methods in fisheries management, used in order to enhance stocks and marine biodiversity in general. A number of biotic and abiotic parameters influence the fouling communities’ formation on artificial reefs through complex interactions. In order to understand how epibiotic or fouling communities progress through time, it is important to st...

The SeaBED autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a new imaging platform designed for high resolution optical and acoustic sensing. This low cost vehicle has been specifically designed for use in waters up to 2000 m to carry out video transects, bathymetric and side-scan sonar surveys. In this paper we detail the systems issues associated with navigation, control, and imaging that led us to our...

With the continued and unprecedented decline of coral reefs worldwide, evaluating the factors that contribute to coral demise is of critical importance. As coral cover declines, macroalgae are becoming more common on tropical reefs. Interactions between these macroalgae and corals may alter the coral microbiome, which is thought to play an important role in colony health and survival. Together,...

Coral reefs, and the unique ecosystems they support, are facing severe threats by human activities and climate change. Our understanding of these threats is hampered by the lack of robust approaches for studying the micro-scale interactions between corals and their environment. Here we present an experimental platform, coral-on-a-chip, combining micropropagation and microfluidics to allow direc...

CORAL (CORrelation And Logic) software can be used to build up the quantitative structure--property/activity relationships (QSPR/QSAR) with optimal descriptors calculated with the simplified molecular input line entry system (SMILES). We used CORAL to evaluate the applicability domain of the QSAR models, taking a model of bioconcentration factor (logBCF) as example. This model's based on a larg...