Functional consequences of the long-term decline of reef-building corals in the Caribbean: evidence of across-reef functional convergence.

ABSTRACT: Functional integrity on coral reefs is strongly dependent upon coral cover and coral carbonate production rate being sufficient to maintain three-dimensional reef structures. Increasing environmental and anthropogenic pressures in recent decades have reduced the cover of key reef-building species, producing a shift towards the relative dominance of more stress-tolerant taxa and leading to a reduction in the physical functional integrity. Understanding how changes in coral community composition influence the potential of reefs to maintain their physical reef functioning is a priority for their conservation and management. Here, we evaluate how coral communities have changed in the northern sector of the Mexican Caribbean between 1985 and 2016, and the implications for the maintenance of phy

SUBMITTER: Estrada-Saldivar N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6837220 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature