Chemically mediated behavior of recruiting corals and fishes: A tipping point that may limit reef recovery

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Science

Publication Date

8-22-2014

Abstract

Coral reefs are in global decline, converting from dominance by coral to dominance by seaweed. Once seaweeds become abundant, coral recovery is suppressed unless herbivores return to remove seaweeds, and corals then recruit. Variance in the recovery of fishes and corals is not well understood.We show that juveniles of both corals and fishes are repelled by chemical cues from fished, seaweed-dominated reefs but attracted to cues from coral-dominated areas where fishing is prohibited. Chemical cues of specific seaweeds from degraded reefs repulsed recruits, and cues from specific corals that are typical of healthy reefs attracted recruits. Juveniles were present at but behaviorally avoided recruiting to degraded reefs dominated by seaweeds. For recovery, degraded reefs may need to be managed to produce cues that attract, rather than repel, recruiting corals and fishes.

ISSN

0036-8075

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Volume

345

Issue

6199

First Page

892

Last Page

897

Disciplines

Life Sciences

Keywords

animal, Anthozoa, article, chemistry, coral reef, environmental protection, fish, food chain, growth, development and aging, larva, methodology, physiology, seaweed, Animals, Anthozoa, Conservation of Natural Resources, Coral Reefs, Fishes, Food Chain, Larva, Seaweed

Scopus ID

84906663424

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Green: A manuscript of this publication is openly available in a repository

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS