Biodiversity and the history of reefs

Abstract

Current biodiversity estimates suggest that modern coral reefs house between 4 and 5% of all described species, although increasingly sophisticated molecular techniques may reveal the actual diversity to be far higher. The origins and maintenance of this considerable taxonomic biodiversity remain, however, poorly known, particularly as the relative importance of controls that maintain the structure of reef communities differ according to the scale of consideration. The diversity of local coral reef communities is strongly correlated with water depth and differences between habitats. Ecological structure is considered to be ordered mainly by interspeci®c interactions and differential responses to disturbance, whereas determinants of diversity at regional geographical scales include variation in rates of dispersal and recruitment from the available metapopulation. On evolutionary timescales, historical events such as unique radiations of key taxa and mass extinctions appear to be the main controls on biodiversity change. All these processes operate simultaneously, and must be integrated in order to gain an understanding of the evolutionary perspective. Depending upon the scale of population considered, reef communities may operate as both individualistic assemblages of taxa with similar requirements, and as more tightly integrated ecological entities.

Sedimentación en comunidades arrecifales de Bahías de Huatulco, Oaxaca, México

“…Estos sistemas proveen un hábitat para un sinnúmero de especies sirviendo de refugio, como zona de alimentación, crecimiento y reproducción; además poseen la función de mantener la interacción entre la zona costera y oceánica (Nybakken 1993). Los arrecifes son reconocidos actualmente como ecosistemas complejos, con múltiples estados estables fluctuantes en el tiempo (Connell et al 1997, Jackson y Johnson 2000, Edmunds 2002) En los últimos 20-50 años, dichas fluctuaciones han culminando en el dramático incremento de la mortalidad coralina y la degradación del arrecife (Jackson 1997, Wood 2001, Pandolfi 2003. Las causas de esta crisis son una compleja mezcla del disturbio directo de actividades antropogénicas y el estrés ocasionado por cambios climáticos que afectan directamente la distribución espacio-temporal de la comunidad arrecifal.…”

Royseux: a palaeobiodiversity hotspot in the Late Viséan (Carboniferous) of Belgium

“…The Saccaminopsis packstone, peloidal mudstone, microbialite and microconchid build-ups yield almost no corals. In contrast, the Gigantoproductus horizons are quite rich and diverse in rugose corals, which suggests that brachiopods and corals were not in competition and perhaps that corals took advantage of the water flows produced by the filtration systems of the brachiopods the same way that some scleractinian corals and giant clams interact in Recent reefs (Wood, 1999).…”

“…At global scales, the late Viséan was a time a high marine biodiversity (e.g. Raup & Sepkowski, 1982;Wood, 2001;Kiessling, 2009). This peak is partly explained by tropical conditions prevailing on most of the Palaeotethys Ocean linked to high sea surface temperatures (Kiessling, 2009).…”

Human Disturbance, Natural Resilience and Management Futures: The Coral Reefs of Todos Os Santos Bay, Bahia, Brazil

“…Coral reefs have complex marine environments where relevant scales in time and space are many and varied (see Hughes, 1994;Hughes, Ayre, & Connell, 1992;Hughes, et al, 2003;Hughes, Bellwood, Folke, Steneck, & Wilson, 2005;McManus, & Polsenberg, 2004;Wood, 1998;Wood, 2001). Coral reef management must account for their wise use, and the social and cultural values of local and traditional people (Fernandes, Ridgley, & van't Hof, 1999).…”