Biodiversity enhances coral growth, tissue survivorship and suppression of macroalgae

• Published in: Nature ecology & evolution Vol. 3; no. 2; pp. 178 - 182
• Main Authors: Clements, Cody S., Hay, Mark E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-02-2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/158/670; 631/158/672; 631/158/853; Acropora millepora; Algae; Animals; Anthozoa - growth & development; Biodiversity; Biological and Physical Anthropology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Brief Communication; Coral Reefs; Corals; Ecology; Evolutionary Biology; Life Sciences; Negative feedback; Pacific Ocean; Paleontology; Pocillopora damicornis; Population decline; Population Dynamics; Porites cylindrica; Seaweed - physiology; Seaweeds; Species richness; Survival; Zoology; Pacific Ocean
• ISSN: 2397-334X; 2397-334X
• DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0752-7

Coral reefs are declining dramatically and losing species richness, but the impact of declining biodiversity on coral well-being remains inadequately understood. Here, we demonstrate that lower coral species richness alone can suppress the growth and survivorship of multiple species of corals (
Porites cylindrica
,
Pocillopora damicornis
and
Acropora millepora
) under field conditions on a degraded, macroalgae-dominated reef. Our findings highlight the positive role of biodiversity in the function of coral reefs, and suggest that the loss of coral species richness may trigger negative feedback that causes further ecosystem decline.
Sixteen-month manipulation experiments in a degraded macroalgae-dominated tropical reef setting show that lower coral species richness suppresses growth and survivorship of multiple species.