Coral Reef - Science topic

The ongoing process of global warming is also causing, among other things, an increase in the temperature of the seas and oceans. This increase in temperature and the increase in the scale of water pollution in the seas and oceans is causing the death of coral reefs, which have formed over millions of years and have developed the most biodiverse ecosystems of the seas and oceans.

In view of the above, I address the following question to the esteemed community of researchers and scientists:

How can instruments and systems for the conservation of nature, of the biosphere, of the highly biodiverse coral reef ecosystems of the seas and oceans be improved?

What is your opinion on this?

What do you think about this topic?

Please reply,

I invite you all to discuss,

Thank you very much,

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

This organism was first encountered during a recent ecological survey of the coral reef in the northern of the South China Sea. Despite consulting a multitude of sources, but I'm still not sure what it is.

This organism was first encountered during a recent ecological survey of the coral reef in the northern of the South China Sea. Despite consulting a multitude of sources, but I'm still not sure what it is.

What are the best practices for selecting environmental variables in ecological niche modeling for coral reef fish species?

This is the third time I've tried to start a discussion about global warming. The first time my topic ended up in the “acid” section, the other two times in the “Black Sea” section. I continue to try to frame the discussion in the "global warming" thread.

Each time I lowered the level of discussion.

My presentation on this topic does not open on the site and this is the reason for opening the discussion.

Along with global warming, there are other reasons for changes in sea levels. One of these reasons is a change in the morphometric characteristics of the World Ocean due to the “fallout” and “melting of carbonate snow” in the thickness of the bottom sediments of the World Ocean. The direction of this continuous process is regulated by the acidity of the waters of the World Ocean, which in turn depends on the ratio of the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the surface layer of the ocean and on the intensity of the release of acidic fluids from the lithosphere in the bottom and deep layers of the World Ocean.

Carbon dioxide dissolving in water increases its acidity, and acidic waters dissolve carbonates contained in bottom sediments.

Maps are provided (http://earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/245) reflecting the dynamics of changes in the content of aragonite in the bottom sediments of the World Ocean over the past 230 years. The volume of aragonites became smaller. The ocean became deeper. The water level in the ocean has dropped.

This is written about in my monograph “Modern changes in the level of the Black Sea as the basis for the strategy of construction development of the coasts”.

Look how much CaCO3 can be dissolved by acidic sea water in a coral reef. This photo is from my discussion "Why does a bay in a coral reef coincide with a submarine discharge of acidic groundwater?".

Looking for species identification, the first Fungia (1) is from Florida, USA while the second Fungia (2) from is Egypte.

Dear All,

I have LISS IV satellite image. I need to do the coral reef mapping for the Lakshadweep lagoon area. Regarding this, Please suggest any algorithm or methodology do this.

I really appreciate any help you can provide.

I guess artificial coral reefs don't grow well in some places. In other places they grow even worse. I would be glad if I see an example of an artificial reef that is not inferior to the natural one. According to my observations, on a natural coral reef, areas of rapid development coexist with dead reefs. The distance between such sites can be less than 100 m. I have observed when a flowering coral reef has degraded in less than 10 years. Attached is a photo of the reef.

I propose to discuss a quote from the article "When are payment for ecosystems services suitable for coral reef derived coastal protection?: A review of scientific requirements": "Payment for Ecosystem Services is an emerging tool intended to solve a range of ecosystem management inefficiencies, by linking conservation action to payment. Such schemes have not been tested to our knowledge, for coral reef derived coastal protection, which is a key Ecosystem Service for many nations bordered by tropical coral reefs.".

The subject of discussion is that if we introduce a tax, then we must have effective mechanisms for influencing the situation. These mechanisms should guarantee its improvement. There are currently no such mechanisms. We do not even have a complete list of the causes of reef degradation. If there is no way to restore the reef with a tax, then there is no reason to collect such a tax.

First, we need to consolidate scientific research and develop an effective mechanism. While it is not available, it is advisable to use the experience of Egypt in creating reserves in the most flowering areas of the reef. The meaning of creating a reserve: "I know little about the ecosystem, about environmental conditions, about transboundary transfers .... For this reason, I" freeze "the situation so as not to harm."

Where am I wrong?

The Atlantic Ocean has minimal coral reef area (Map 1) and minimal fish and shellfish coral biodiversity. Could this be a consequence of the maximum hydrothermal activity of the Atlantic Ocean? Look at the map of deep water acidity [CO32-] SW to the ocean (Map 2).

How true is this?

In the Red Sea (Egypt) we have found that practically all bays can only have discrete directions (angles). This is 0° and 270°; 17° and 287°; 35° and 305°; 45° and 315°; 62° and 332°; 77° and 347°. On the coast, the soil is always wet (Map 1), and sometimes there are even lakes (Map 2). I do not want to impose my opinion because there may be more correct explanations. Maybe there are ideas?

We have seen many coral reefs. Some of these are algae staple because they are rich in nutrients. However, in such a situation we observed a coral reef dominated by Sponges. Physical and other parameters of the water indicate that it should also be an algae-dominated reef rather than a sponge-dominated coral reef. We can't understand why this happened.

Dear Red Sea coral reef enthusiasts,

the attached picture was taken by H. Schuhmacher (then in Bochum, Germany) in 1980 at the Wingate reef off Port Sudan, about 12 m deep. Have you seen this hexacoral-like structure before and can direct us where to find the ID?

Thanks in advance,

Goetz Reinicke

We are launching a Ph.D. research looking at the effect of salinity and temperate increase on the bioerosion rates in coral reefs in the northern Persian Gulf. In doing so, artificial and natural blocks will be submerged along a gradient of salinity and temperature where hypersaline water from the desalination plant discharges into the sea. We are planning to use two types of natural and artificial blocks including (1) natural blocks by segmenting dead massive corals (e.g., Platygyra sp.); and (2) artificial blocks made of carbonate calcium.

But wonder how to make artificial blocks that need to be identical to natural blocks in terms of porosity and texture. Can we use crushed dead corals that have been blocked by a glue? If yes? What type of glue?

Wondering if anyone has experience in making such artificial blocks.

Best regards

Mohammad

I have been constructing 3D models of large corals and I was wondering if there is a software that I can use to gather the area of live tissue vs dead/disease? I am aware there is a way by tracing the live tissue but I would like to avoid that by automating the process based on color/texture. I have seen it done with a large swath of coral reef using QGIS to calculate the coverage of multiple species and was hoping is could be done using a similar technique. I have attached an image of one of the corals I have constructed for a visual of these corals.

I have noted dramatically change in color on the body of some marine fishes. For example, I saw a dramatically change from a "intense-yellow" color to "brown" color (normal color), just in one second. Is not a gradual change of color, is very quickly, similar like an octopuses. How could be explained this color change?

Ha logrado alguno críopreservar exitosamente los ovocitos de alguna especie de coral? Solamente he encontrado un caso para una gorgónea (Junceella juncea) por medio de vitrificación (Tsai et al. 2015, adjunto abajo). Se que algunos investigadores (comunicaciones personales) han logrado en algunos casos descongelarlas y reactivarlas después de realizar las inmersiones o el almacenamiento en nitrógeno líquido, sin embargo, pese a que los ovocitos salen 'vivos', estos pierden su capacidad de ser fertilizados (quedan infértiles).

Agradezco de antemano su apoyo y colaboración compartiendo sus respuestas y experiencia en este asunto.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277881464_Development_of_Cryopreservation_Techniques_for_Gorgonian_Junceella_juncea_Oocytes_through_Vitrification

The only way for companies that carry out ecological activities to be implemented in the future is to surpass polluting companies in their field, being more competitive than them, through technologies such as Blockchain and innovation in production processes. Discover how carbon credits are going to help green companies be profitable and how prosumers are going to play a leading role in that process

Can cryptocurrencies be used to make ecology profitable?

Hi everyone: I am working with fish biomass data and trying to convert my observations from g/100m2 (regional standard) to Kg/ hectare (global standard). Can anyone advise the correct conversion formula to do this?

Corals are small animals that form a symbiotic relationship with algae. The algae produce sugars for the corals and are in turn provided with needed nutrients and protection from predators.

But it doesn't explain where the amazing diversity of fish, mollusks, crustaceans, everything else comes from. As far as I can tell, the whole point of the coral's success is that their hard skeleton protects them from all but the most specialized predators.

So if the corals don't directly add energy input to the coral reef ecosystem, what is it that makes the reefs so productive and diverse? Or, put another way, what makes a coral reef environment more productive than simple phytoplankton floating in the open ocean?

Do you think ten years is enough to make any changes to coral erosion?

Depths observed = 5-25m, potentially deeper. Observed typically in shaded areas within shallow coral reef habitats in Mauritius. 'Colonies' usually no larger than 5-10cm^2 and 1-2cm 'tall'. Often on the underside of overhangs or in cavernous areas, but also observed growing upright in appriopriate areas of the reef slope.

Structure clearly mineralised, not flexible, incredibly brittle and fragile. Seemingly not associated with any recognisable form of benthic substrate including sponges, entoprocts, ectoprocts, anthozoa, algae etc. Initial glance suggested some strange hydrozoan but unlike anything I recognize. Does not appear to be simply an endoskeleton remnant of anything nearby. Very keen to be enlightened.

Cheers!

I am looking for not very expensive methods to determine how much CO2 could be trapped by coral reef species in the Caribbean. Also, I want to do the same thing in Coralline Algae.

Could you suggest something about this?

Following Saha et al. (2019) - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2019.115793 - whether the reconstruction of land clearing and forest fires in the Bornean tropical forest should be possible using V/Ca of the Porites observed by Browne et al. (2019) - https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7382 - in the Miri-Sibuti Coral Reef Ecosystem?

we are looking at the effect of salinity and temperature increase on bioerosion rates in coral reefs in the northern Persian Gulf of the Persian Gulf for 18 month. To that end, we are planing to use natural ( dead massive coral parts) and artificial blocks made of carbonate calcium. we want artificial blocks be identical to natural blocks in term of texture and porosity.

can we use iceland spar crystals as artificial blocks that bioeroded by macroborers?

Dear all,

I'm looking for a way to statistically compare species composition between sites. I have the abundance of 42 species for 21 sites belonging to 4 different categories. I will also soon have GPS data giving me the distance between sites.

I basically want to see if there is any similarity in term of ecological composition between my sites and between categories and also if any species indicators (or combination of them) come out for each sites or for each category of sites.

So far, I've tried to compute Bray Curtis matrix (vegan package on R) giving me dendrogram of similarity and play around with Indicspec package, but I'm definitely out of my confort zone with that kinds of tests. Once I have the GPS data, I'd like to include those informations in the analyzes, but I have no clue on how to do it (Mantel correlation?).

Any inputs on what to do and how to do it would be much appreciated.

Cheers

An increase in the live coral cover is generally seen as a positive sign of resilience of a reef. However I feel that there is something beyond live coral cover. Please put in your comments/suggestions and any related articles.

Can you help identify the this erosions that Around it Yellow line draw?

Can it be sponge?

Hi, I am a starting my BS' senior year in a few months. The major of my study is molecular and cell biology, I also have a decent background of computational biology tools used for analyzing high throughput sequencing data.

I am interested in perusing my graduate studies at coral reef genomics, biotechnology of coral reef restoration, etc. The problem is I am confused somehow and do not know where to start from. Can anyone give me any advice that can help (Recommending a quality lab that works in the field, having the contacts of a professor that works on the field and maybe needs to recruit a masters or Ph.D. student, or recommending an online course or a textbook that would help me get the required knowledge)? Please, provide me with anything that you think may help. Thanks in advance.

Is it possible to restore the coral reef damage due to vessel grounded? because there are an expert said that coral transplantation is no need to replace all the coral reef damage areas.

I'm currently trying to examine any potential differences among coral reef fish assemblages between three different micro-habitats, sampled from six different sites, from two different islands (three sites per island).

Having performed a PERMANOVA (Primer 7) using three factors: micro-habitat (fixed), site (random) and island (random), I find that microhabitat has no significant effect. However, when I peform a PERMANOVA using micro-habitat as my only factor, I get a highly significant result (p < 0.002).

I'm not a statistician, so my understanding of multivariate analysis is pretty limited, but I would really appreciate it if someone could explain why the number of factors used can change the output.

Thank you

Ocean acidification is the lowering of ocean pH due to increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere (from fossil fuel burning, deforestation etc.). The absorption of CO2 has already acidified the surface layers of the ocean causing an overall decrease of 0.1 pH units since the pre-industrial period, which is equivalent to a 30% increase in acidity and a 16% decrease in carbonate ion concentrations. The surface ocean pH is projected to decrease by 0.3-0.4 pH units by 2100 (predicted to decline from approximately 8.2 in pre-industrial times to 7.8 by the end of this century). The changes in basic ocean chemistry due to ocean acidification are likely to have impacts on organisms that require calcium carbonate to build their shells or skeletons such as corals, and molluscs (oysters, mussels, pteropods, and abalone). There are three naturally occurring forms of calcium carbonate used by marine organisms to build shells, plates or skeletons: calcite (e.g. marine plankton coccolithophores), aragonite (e.g. corals, pteropods) and high magnesium calcite (e.g. starfish, sea urchins, brittle stars). The solubility & sensitivity to ocean acidification is higher with magnesium calcite and the least with calcite in the following order: magnesium calcite>aragonite> calcite.

Increasing ocean acidification can significantly reduce the ability of reef-building corals to produce their skeletons via reduced calcification. Successful fertilisation, larval settlement, recruitment, growth and survivorship of corals can be affected due to ocean acidification. A recent research shows that corals, echinoderms and molluscs are very sensitive to a decline in the pH value compared to crustaceans (Wittmann and Pörtner 2013). Many marine fish (about 25% of known marine fish) use coral reef as a habitat, shelter (refuge) and food. Coral reefs provide food and livelihood security for some 500 million people worldwide including 90% protein need of inhabitants of Pacific Island Developing Nations. Coral reefs are the primary economic driver in many tourist destinations and protect fragile coastlines from threats such as tsunamis and erosions.

Some experimental results showed that calcification is generally reduced in mussels under near-future CO2 levels. Projected future CO2 level (rise of ocean acidification) can impact on shell formation, larval development, and survival rate in abalone. A study on the early development of the oyster (Crassostrea gigas) found that shell calcification is reduced in juveniles and their body shape and size are also altered. Many mollusc species at the adult and juvenile stages have shown reduced growth and/or health under projected ocean acidification scenarios. Molluscs are food for commercial fish such as haddock, halibut, herring, flounder and cod. Clams, scallops, mussels, oysters, abalone and conchs provide direct protein sources for various island and coastal communities and are valuable commercial fisheries. Molluscs account for 8% of the global marine catch.

Though the effects of increased acidity on adult finfish seems to be minimal or supposed to be largely unaffected (since fish are able to control their acid-base balance by bicarbonate buffering, mainly across the gills and via the kidney), however, some recent experiments with tropical coral reef fish suggest that the sensory systems of fish can be affected by ocean acidification. For example, when clownfish (Amphiprion percula) were exposed to higher CO2 levels, they could not distinguish predator from non-predator and were found swimming toward predators, instead of away from them (Dixson et al. 2010). The loss of the senses of sight/smell/touch due to ocean acidification would thus reduce survival in commercially important fish species. Another experiment (Frommell et al. 2012) showed detrimental effects of ocean acidification on the developmental stages of Atlantic cod larvae (Gadus morhua). Exposure to elevated CO2 levels resulted in severe to lethal tissue damage in many internal organs in larval cod, with the degree of damage increasing with CO2 concentrations. As larval survival is the bottleneck to recruitment, ocean acidification has the potential to act as an additional source of natural mortality, which may affect populations of already exploited fish stocks. A small change in early life survival can generate large fluctuations in adult-fish abundance in the wild.

Antarctic krill (Euphausia spp.) is a key pelagic species in the southern region and represents the largest fishery resource. Many animals like whales, seals, penguins and fish are dependent on krill fishery. Marine ecosystems in particular krill populations could be vulnerable to ocean acidification. For example, when krill eggs were exposed to elevated seawater CO2 levels, hatch rates were found significantly lower, it also delayed embryonic development (Kawaguchi et al. 2013). The pteropod, or “sea butterfly” (with aragonite shells) are an important food source (for fish such as juvenile salmon, birds, tiny krill, and giant whales). They (pteropods) are also a good indicator of ecosystem health and play an important role in the oceanic carbon cycle. The shells of pteropods, Limacina helicina antarctica – living in the seas around Antarctica are being severely dissolved by ocean acidification according to a new study (Bednaršek et al. 2012). The main consequence of loss of shell due to ocean acidification will be increasing vulnerability of pteropods to predation and infection, which will in turn impact other parts of the food web.

Ocean acidification may cause an increase in jellyfish (Attrill et al. 2008). Jellyfish are key predators and can affect the abundance of zooplankton, fish larvae and eggs, which affects survival to the adult stage (or recruitment) of fish populations. As jellyfish are rarely the preferred food for other marine animals, any significant increase in their numbers could have major consequences for pelagic ecosystems and fisheries.

Nevertheless, rising CO2 may enhance productivity of non calcifying seagrasses, seaweeds as they require CO2 for photosynthesis and living, for example, photosynthetic organisms such as seagrasses showed higher growth rates, as much as five-fold or higher with acidification (Hendriks et al.2010 )

Question: Will ocean acidification be a threat to seafood security, commercial fishing and livelihoods? If so, how?

Hi,

I would be interested to learn about other people's experiences with the use of spawning tiles to collect fish eggs from the field.

I know that some species of anemonefish, for instance, will readily deposit egg clutches on ceramic tiles when placed near their breeding site (e.g. Amphiprion percula or A. polymnus), while others do not (e.g. A. bicinctus or A. chrysopterus).

What other benthic breeding species is amenable to this approach?

Thanks very much!

Gerrit

I am working on a concept of coral reef formation that requires this information in order to prove a point. If you know where I can find this map, kindly include the citation as well if possible. Thank you!

Four coral reef cores were conducted shear wave velocity measurement by GDS bender element system. At the band of 0.4 to 0.9 kHz, shear wave velocity of Porites is inversely proportional to frequency, from core 1 to core 4, the shear wave velocity decreases from 785 to 295 m/s, and the percent frequency effect (PFE) is about 4.8 to 8.8 %. In the 1 to 5 kHz band, the shear wave velocity increases rapidly as the frequency increases, the range of velocity change is 280 to 1600 m/s, and the PFE varies from 15.1 to 18.9 %.

The question is why the dispersion of coral cores are so great?

Looking through the litterature it seems that baited remote underwater video stations are not totally reliable to identify the assemblages and density of fish biodiversity. In coral reefs, the majority of publications include both shrimp (prawns) trawls or other types of nets in addition to BRUVS.

I was wondering if anybody tried this technique in mangroves, and weather or not it is actually possible to only use BRUVS and not trawls.

Need help for a choice of data logger (water temperature) for coral reef monitoring (bleaching event)

1- Life battery: minimum of 3 months (long life if it's possible)

2- Sensor precision 0.1- 0.2°C

3- Fluency to upload data

4- Durable

Have you ever used HOBO Water temperature Pro ?

Thanks a lot

Alexis

I was conducting a research about coral reef in four different zonations: 1. Core area; 2. Buffer area; 3. Utilization and tourism area; and 4. Human settlement area, and come across an interesting findings. The coral cover percentage in human settlement area appeared to have the highest coral cover percentage compared to four other zonations. Also, i found that recent observation at the same location is having the similar result.

Are there references i can read to learn about this event?

Thank you, your response will be appreciated

Dear researchers,

I am currently working on a project aiming to access the influences of a disturbance on coral reef fish assemblages.

As the title goes, I've encountered a major problem while computing FD indices. I am going to compute Functional Richness, Functional Evenness, Functional Dispersion proposed by Dr. Sébastien Villéger at 2008.

However, the lack of enough species/functional entities in most of our observation makes FD indices computation impossible (The size of the assemblage in every observation is small, usually less than species).

Here are some details of our research method

The field survey method we applied is "modified Stationary Point Count (SPC)", apart from the usual SPC, I select a patch of coral (ranging from 20*20cm2 - 150*150cm2 ) as an object and record down the species either swim by from less than 1m above or crawling on it, as well as the abundance of those species for 6 minutes. And thus we usually encountered less than 3 species. Three treatments are there and for each treatment, we collect 10 data (10 observation).

I appreciate any comment and piece of advice on this topic and thank you in advance.

Best,

Yu-De

I tried to dissolve the corals dispersed in water and then I added high pure acetic acid slowly, but this method damaged and denatured the protein. 

I am conducting a Meta-analysis for the very first time. According to the literature in meta-analysis for investigating benthic changes on coral reefs, the effect size usually used is the geometric rate of change. However, I cannot find the right way to compute this effect size and its weight in R.

If someone knows about other effect size method is also pretty welcome.

If someone can help would be amazing. Many thanks in advance, Ameris

We started a new project which involves the identification of coral reef and coastal fish species in Mauritius. I would be very glad about any literature suggestions, especially identification keys.

During our last field work we encountered this fish species in the intertidal zone in Mauritius (Indian Ocean). It has a striking fluorescent V on its head, clearly visible when viewed from above. The fish is ca. 3 cm in total length. I would very much appreciate a little help in identifying the species! Thanks a lot upfront.

These two photos show two examples of holes in the scleractinian coral Porites astreoides. What organism is responsible for this? I tend to exclude a gall crab (Cryptochiridae), as they are not known to inhabit Porites. Maybe it indicates an epibiont like a cirripedian which cannot keep up with upward coral growth, but I only see these holes in this particular coral species.

Has anybody investigated this phenomenon?

I am currently working on a paper and I need to know if coral skeleton density actually does increase with depth for all coral species, if this is species-specific, or if this issue is still unknown.  I am specifically talking about coral species that are found both in shallower water and at mesophotic depths.  However, I would also like to know if depth specialist corals only found in deeper water have higher skeleton densities than shallower coral of different species.  At the moment, I am only aware of 2 Caribbean studies (Baker and Weber 1975; Hughes 1987) that test this issue.  Please let me know if you are aware of others or have any other insight.  Thank you.

I am trying to understand what drives bioerosion by grazing organisms.  I understand that algae are a major food source, but there are often problems in the literature distinguishing between basic herbivory grazing and BIOEROSIONAL grazing.  My question is specifically related to what controls bioerosional grazing in reefs with depth, especially related to food sources.  Please let me know if you can help. 

size of 6-8cm, found within 7-8m coral reef area. Certainly from Family Pomacentridae

Black spot in the pectoral fin, yellow margin at the dorsal spine, with black spot or probably an ocellus at the anal fin, and has bluish ring in its eye

I have looked in references such as Damselfishes of the World (Allen 1991), World atlas of marine fishes (Kuiter and Debelius, 2006), Reef fish Identification (Allen et al 2003), and Indonesian Reef Fishes (Kuiter and Tonozuka, 2011), however, I still can't find an exact  match.

Thanks

I would like to understand which light wavelengths reaches the layers inside a coral skeleton. I couldn't find anything in literature, so any help would be welcome.

While certain studies clearly state that coral reefs are a carbon source (e.g., Ware et al 1991), on a broad and long term scale, can skeletons of corals/oysters/tube worms etc, that are permanently embedded onto hard substrate (be it coral reef, rock reef, or man-made structure), be considered as capturing some CO2 - even if CO2 was released in the calcification process?  

Many thanks 

Shimrit

Wetlands has various definition around the globe. coastal fresh water Marshes, swamps, tidal salt marshes, peat bogs, fens, mangrove swamps, etc.

But there are few definitions in some websites just says wetlands are place where land and water meets! without including any ecological or biological measures and landscape type. Surprisingly counties like India and Sri Lanka included rivers and tanks under the the same. How this is possible? 

What characteristics of species, such as temperate or tropical, sessile or motile, and so on, make them especially delicate to stressors inferable from environmental change?

What particularly about species makes them more prone to being affected by climate change?

genes specifically: rcbL and rcbS

TL ~25mm. See at Rottnest Island on 28 April 2017 in a group of three conspecifics. Any thoughts greatly appreciated as it is out of range.

TL ~16cm. Rottnest Island, Western Australia, May 2016. Depth 12m. I believe it is either Torquigener flavimaculosus or T. hicksi. I would like confirmation so it can be included in a soon-to-be-published book on the fishes of Rottnest Island. Any help with identification or suggestions greatly appreciated.

The area might possible experience a number of typhoons over the year, stable is understood as most resistant to those factors mainly minimizing the loss of coral transplants.

Least invasive for further definition is the impact the method would have in terms of length of implementation and use of tools that would bore into the ocean floor for example.

Examples of the methods can be found in the provided links.

Hi all, I know it may be difficult to identify coral species from a photo but it would be great if anyone can point me to identify these corals up to genera.

Hi all, I know it may be difficult to identify coral species from a photo but it would be great if anyone can point me to identify these corals up to genera.

Hi everybody!

I was wondering if anyone would have any good papers that would discuss different scleractinian coral species fragmentation rates or erosion rates? More specifically how fast scleractinian coral skeleton erodes in the sediment. It's probably highly correlated with the skeletal density and the growth form (plating, branching or encrusting) as Raymond C. Highsmith discusses in his article "Coral Bioerosion: Damage Relative to Skeletal Density" (1981). But I'm trying to understand what are the chances of finding different species in the sediment and if some species will be under-represented in sediment studies and if so which? My hypothesis is that encrusting corals (such as Oulastrea sp. and Lithophyllon sp.) will usually not be well represented in sedimentation studies whereas branching and plating corals (such as Acropora sp. and  Turbinaria sp.) will dominate the skeletal abundance. Any references and reading recommendations are highly appreciated.

Thank you!

-Stefan

How can we classify oyster reefs on the basis of spatial geometry as we do for coral reefs (fringing, barrier etc)??? 

Any hint or literature share will make my ways easy.

Thank you!

I am interested to know the biomass potential from drifted seaweeds over the different countries. We have extensive but very old estimate for entire coast and new data for species composition but for limited locality from India. Any information will be helpful.  

The aim is to try to ellaborate an up to date  variation scale of this indicator to represent coral disease  incidence risk in Caribbean coral reefs. Reference sources are appreciated.

These are all recent marine sediments

Is anyone working on modeling how changes to coral reefs may change coastal erosion models.  This is something I am very interested in getting into and is wondering if anyone would be interested in collaborating or has suggestions on who to speak to.  Thanks!

This answer refers to coral reefs that display higher coral cover plus the continued dominance of the original species that dominated or were well represented in the past of the reefs. E.g. Acropora palmata in reef crests, and Orbicellas, Montastraeas, Agaricias, etc. and thus were not substituted for  oportunistic species as Millepora complanata, Siderastrea siderea, Porites astreoides, for example.

Recently my lab mate has collected this specimen from coral reef habitat of Gujarat state, located on western coast of India. 

This bryozoan colony (~ 15 cm height) was found in June 2015 in St. Eustatius (Dutch Caribbean). It has somewhat flattened branches.

Who knows what species this is?

I would like to know which are the main ecosystem services that provide communities coral reefs and what are the main economic and social activities that affect or put at risk.

My snorkel buddy found this fish in a rocky habitat in Big fisherman's cove. It was hiding in the rocks in 2.5 meters of water in a shaded area. It has a orange head with foggy eyes, that reminded her of cataracts. When she got closer to take a picture the fish would raise its spines toward her. Pictures attached below. Thanks for the help we are really curious to know what it might be!