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(NAS Colloquium) The Future of Evolution (2002) / Chapter Skim
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The Future of Coral Reefs
Pages 31-37

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From page 31...
... Thus, although concerted efforts to protect reef habitats may slow their ongoing decline, it is difficult to be optimistic about the health of reefs globally over the short term in the context of increasing human populations and economic growth (5~. As the world changes with growing human domination, ecological and evolutionary changes on coral reefs similar to those outlined for terrestrial and other marine organisms and ecosystems (e.g., refs.
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From page 32...
... Compared with the mass spawning species, brooding corals have many of the attributes of weeds: they often grow to smaller sizes, reproduce earlier, have shorter life spans, and are competitively inferior to larger and more aggressive broadcasting species (25, 26, 36~. Moreover, their ability to self-fertilize would make them less vulnerable to Allee effects and allow them to persist even at low densities.
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From page 33...
... The ecological effects of coral pathogens are likely to be especially severe because rates of mortality can be very high [up to 2 cm of coral tissue daily (664i, whereas coral growth and recruitment rates are typically intrinsically low te.g., annual growth rates of ~1 cm per year in many massive corals (67~. The Caribbean, once again, provides particularly troubling examples (68~.
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From page 34...
... However, because coral species with very dense skeletons are often slowly growing, and fragmentation results in lowered threedimensionality, reefs of the future may find themselves caught evolutionarily between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Threshold Effects, Multiple Stable States, and Metapopulations Reef biologists who have watched coral cover decline from 50% to 5~o over the course of their careers are understandably distressed by the state of reefs today and their prospects for the future.
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From page 35...
... The weeds would instead be the rapidly colonizing ephemeral algae seen on reefs after hurricanes and other major disturbances. Broader Consequences for Biodiversity The extent to which degraded reefs and other habitats can support the associated diversity of healthy coral reef habitatsthe current homes for the myriad crustaceans, worms, mollusks, bryozoans, and other groups that are found on reefs—is unknown.
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From page 36...
... Moreover, the weight of the straws is likely to be multiplicative rather than additive because of negative synergistic effects between different types of stressors. Crippled coral reefs, like crippled camels, provide many fewer services, and they can be prohibitively expensive to repair (115~.
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From page 37...
... 8th Int. Coral Reef Symp.
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Key Terms

  • coral reef
  • sea level
  • reef builders
  • global warming
  • brooding corals

  • coral species
  • reproductive output
  • competitively dominant
  • multiple stable
  • corals themselves

  • habitat loss
  • fossil record
  • allee effects
  • rising sea
  • reef associates

  • remains unclear
  • spawning species
  • water column
  • reproductive failure
  • reef growth

  • marine organisms
  • calcium carbonate
  • stable states
  • limited dispersal
  • generation times

  • nutrient levels
  • extinctions associated
  • fertilization rates
  • weedy corals
  • major reef


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