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Oct

31

2007
 
 

Parrots of the Caribbean



Curse of the dead urchins leaves parrotfish unable to save coral Love coral, hate algaeThe 1983 mass die-off of sea urchins Diadema antillarum in the Caribbean was just one in a series of events that left its coral reefs stricken. According to research published this week in Nature, things will stay that way until we do something about it. University of Exeter marine biologist Peter Mumby and colleagues have characterized the reef’s ecology in a mathematical model, finding that the combination of hurricane damage -- Allen in 1980 and Gilbert in 1988 -- and urchin mortality have thrown the reef into an alternative ecologically stable state: one dominated by algae. Coral reefs depend on grazing animals to clear algae and provide new colonization sites, and with the urchins gone the parrotfish simply couldn’t cope. Once the grazing level dropped below a certain threshold, the reef was bound to convert to an algae-dominated state. Controlling the exploitation of parrotfish might help recovery, as will the resurgence of the urchins, but until the right management practices are established the reef will remain devoid of coral. Source: Mumby PJ, Hastings A & Edwards HJ (2007) Thresholds and the resilience of Caribbean coral reefs. Nature DOI: 10.1038/nature06252 Related stories in Conservation magazine: 10 Solutions to Save the Ocean Image © Tammy Peluso

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