Competition between corals and algae on coral reefs: a review of evidence and mechanisms

来自 EBSCO

喜欢 0

阅读量：

166

作者：

L.，McCook，J.，JompaG.，Diaz-Pulido

展开

摘要：

Despite widespread acceptance that competition between scleractinian corals and benthic algae is important to the structure of coral reef communities, there is little direct experimental evidence that corals and algae do compete, and very little data on the processes and causality of their interactions. Most available evidence is observational or correlative, with intrinsic risks of confounded causality. This paper reviews and categorises the available evidence, concluding that competition between corals and algae probably is widespread on coral reefs, but also that the interaction varies considerably. Widespread replacement of corals by algae may often indicate coral mortality due to external disturbances, rather than competitive overgrowth, but may lead to competitive inhibition of coral recruitment, with consequences for reef recovery. We list eight specific processes by which corals and algae may affect each other, and suggest life history properties that will influence which of th

展开

关键词：

Coral reef algae Coral-algal competition Macroalgae Phase shifts Overgrowth

DOI：

10.1007/s003380000129

被引量：

1188

年份：

2001