{"id":1259,"date":"2009-06-02T09:54:48","date_gmt":"2009-06-02T13:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=1259"},"modified":"2009-06-02T09:54:48","modified_gmt":"2009-06-02T13:54:48","slug":"coral-bullies-arent-as-mean-as-we-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2009\/06\/02\/coral-bullies-arent-as-mean-as-we-thought\/","title":{"rendered":"Coral bullies aren’t as mean as we thought"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Degradation of coral reefs due to such threats as pollution, climate warming, disease, overfishing and tourism has made them a poster child for destruction of diverse, wild ecosystems suffering at the hands of human-made problems. There is a little bit of good news, though, according to researchers publishing in the June issue of Ecology. Seaweed, which can suffocate corals on massive reefs, isn\u2019t as big a problem as once thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seaweed \u2014 or, to be more specific, macroalgae \u2014 can not only crowd out baby corals for room on the reef, but also reduce a coral population\u2019s potential for recovery after natural disturbances, such as hurricanes or disease. Without baby corals to continue the population, seaweed can take over, much like it did on several Jamaican reefs during the 1980s: originally 70 percent corals, the reefs now contain less than 10 percent corals, with seaweed being the dominant life form.<\/span><\/p>\n

John Bruno<\/a> of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his colleagues did a meta-analysis on previously published studies of so-called phase shifts on reefs. It turns out, the researchers say, that the transition from coral-dominated to seaweed-dominated reefs is not nearly as common as once thought.\u00a0 Said Bruno in a press release:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUntil now, many scientists have concluded that the world\u2019s coral reefs are being overrun by seaweed. Our findings show that\u2019s not the case. Seaweed have taken over and are dominating some reefs, but far fewer than assumed.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, we shouldn\u2019t just forget about protecting reefs from seaweed.\u00a0 The researchers stress that \u00a0case studies (such as the degradation of Jamaican reefs) are still important warnings of the potential threat to wildlife posed by marine disturbances, and shouldn\u2019t be ignored.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more in the ESA<\/a>\/UNC<\/a> press release.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Degradation of coral reefs due to such threats as pollution, climate warming, disease, overfishing and tourism has made them a poster child for destruction of diverse, wild ecosystems suffering at the hands of human-made problems. There is a little bit of good news, though, according to researchers publishing in the June issue of Ecology. Seaweed, which can suffocate corals on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}