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

Coral Reefs

Volumn 19, Issue 4, 2001, Pages 400-417

  McCook, L J ^a   Jompa, J ^a,b,c   Diaz Pulido, G ^a,b  

^a AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE   (Australia)

^b JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^c HASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY   (Indonesia)

Author keywords

Coral reef algae; Coral algal competition; Macroalgae; Overgrowth; Phase shifts

Indexed keywords

ALGA; CORAL; CORAL REEF; INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION;

EID: 0035016990     PISSN: 07224028     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s003380000129     Document Type: Review

References (97)

1. Antonius A (1988) Black band disease behavior on Red Sea reef corals. In: Proc 6th Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 3, pp 145-150
2. Antonius A (1999) Metapeyssonnelia corallepida, a new coral-killing red alga on Caribbean reefs. Coral Reefs 18: 301
3. Bak RPM, Engel MS (1979) Distribution, abundance and survival of juvenile hermatypic corals (Scleractinia) and the importance of life history strategies in the parent coral community. Mar Biol 54: 341-352
4. Bak RPM, Brouns JJWM, Heys FML (1977) Regeneration and aspects of spatial competition in the scleractinian corals Agaricia agaricites and Montastrea annularis. In: Proc 3rd Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 1, pp 143-148
5. Banner AH (1974) Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii: urban pollution and a coral reef ecosystem. In: Proc 2nd Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 2, pp 685-702
6. Benayahu Y, Loya Y (1981) Competition for space among coral reef sessile organisms at Eilat, Red Sea. Bull Mar Sci 31: 514-522
7. Birkeland C (1977) The importance of rate of biomass accumulation in early successional stages of benthic communities to the survival coral recruits. In: Proc 3rd Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 1, pp 15-21
8. Carpenter RC (1990) Competition among marine macroalgae: a physiological perspective. J Phycol 26: 6-12
9. Carpenter RC (1997) Invertebrate predators and grazers. In: Birkeland C (ed) Life and death of coral reefs. Chapman and Hall, New York, pp 198-229
10. Chadwick NE (1988) Competition and locomotion in a free-living fungiid coral. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 123: 189-200
11. Coles SL (1988) Limitations on reef coral development in the Arabian Gulf: temperature or algal competition? In: Proc 6th Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 3, pp 211-216
12. Connell JH (1983) On the prevalence and relative importance of interspecific competition: evidence from field experiments. Am Nat 122: 661-696
13. Connell JH, Hughes TP, Wallace CC (1997) A 30 year study of coral abundance, recruitment, and disturbance at several scales in space and time. Ecol Monogr 67: 461-488
14. Coyer JA, Ambrose RF, Engle JM, Carroll JC (1993) Interactions between corals and algae on a temperate zone rocky reef: mediation by sea urchins. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 167: 21-37
15. Crossland CJ (1981) Seasonal growth of Acropora cf. formosa and Pocillopora damicornis on a high latitude reef (Houtman Abrolhos, Western Australia). In: Proc 4th Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 1, pp 663-668
16. de Nys R, Coll JC, Price IR (1991) Chemically mediated interactions between the red alga Plocamium hamatum (Rhodophyta) and the octocoral Sinularia cruciata (Alcyonacea). Mar Biol 108: 315-320
17. de Ruyter van Steveninck ED, Bak RPM (1986) Changes in abundance of coral-reef bottom components related to mass mortality of the sea urchin Diadema antillarum. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 34: 87-94
18. de Ruyter van Steveninck ED, Kamermans P, Breeman AM (1988a) Transplant experiments with two morphological growth forms of Lohophora variegata (Phaeophyceae). Mar Ecol Prog Ser 49: 191-194
19. de Ruyter van Steveninck ED, Van Mulekom LL, Breeman AM (1988b) Growth inhibition of Lobophora variegata (Lamouroux) Womersley by scleractinian corals. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 115: 169-178
20. de Vantier LM (1986) Studies in the assessment of coral reef ecosystems. In: Brown BE (ed) Human induced damage to coral reefs. UNESCO Rep Mar Sci 40: 99-111
21. Diamond J (1986) Overview: laboratory experiments, field experiments and natural experiments. In: Diamond J, Case TJ (eds) Community ecology. Harper and Row, New York, pp 3-22
22. Diaz-Pulido G, Diaz JM (1997) Algal assemblages in lagoonal reefs of Caribbean oceanic atolls. In: Proc 8th Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 1, pp 827-832
23. Diaz-Pulido G, Bula-Meyer G (1997) Marine algae from oceanic atolls in the southwestern Caribbean (Albuquerque Cays, Courtown Cays, Serrana Bank, and Roncador Bank). Atoll Res Bull 448: 1-18
24. Done TJ (1992) Phase shifts in coral reef communities and their ecological significance. Hydrobiologica (The ecology of mangrove and related ecosystems) 247: 121-132
25. Finckh AE (1904) Section VI. Biology of the reef forming organisms at Funafuti Atoll. In: The atoll of Funafuti. Royal Society of London, London, pp 125-150
26. Fishelson L (1973) Ecological and biological phenomena influencing coral-species composition on the reef tables at Eilat (Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea). Mar Biol 19: 183-196
27. Fitz HC, Reaka ML, Wolf NG (1983) Coral recruitment at moderate depths: the influence of grazing. In: Reaka ML (ed) The ecology of deep and shallow coral reefs. Symposia Series for Undersea Research. NOA's Undersea Research Program, Washington, pp 89-96
28. Genin A, Lazar B, Brenner S (1995) Vertical mixing and coral death in the Red Sea following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Nature 377: 507-510
29. Goreau TJ (1992) Bleaching and reef community change in Jamaica: 1951-1991. Am Zool 32: 683-685
30. Hatcher BG (1983) Grazing in coral reef ecosystems. In: Barnes DJ (ed) Perspectives on coral reefs. Brian Clouston, Canberra, pp 164-179
31. Hay ME, Taylor PR (1985) Competition between herbivorous fishes and urchins on Caribbean reefs. Oecologia 65: 591-598
32. Heyward AJ, Negri AP (1999) Natural inducers for coral larval metamorphosis. Coral Reefs 18: 273-279
33. Hughes TP (1989) Community structure and diversity of coral reefs: the role of history. Ecology 70: 275-279
34. Hughes TP (1994) Catastrophes, phase-shifts and large-scale degradation of a Caribbean coral reef. Science 265: 1-23
35. Hughes TP (1996) Demographic approaches to community dynamics: a coral reef example. Ecology 77: 2256-2260
36. Hughes TP, Reed DC, Boyle M-J (1987) Herbivory on coral reefs: community structure following mass mortalities of sea urchins. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 113: 39-59
37. Hughes TP, Szmant AM, Steneck RS, Carpenter R, Miller S (1999) Algal blooms on coral reefs: what are the causes? Limnol Oceanogr 44: 1583-1586
38. Hunter CL, Evans CW (1994) Reefs in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii: two centuries of western influence and two decades of data. In: Ginsburg RN (compiler) Proc Conf on The Colloquium on Global Aspects of Coral Reefs: Health, Hazards, and History, University of Miami, Miami, pp 339-345
39. James NP, Wray JL, Ginsburg RN (1988) Calcification of encrusting aragonite algae (Peyssonneliaceae): implications for the origin of late Paleozoic reefs and cements. J Sediment Petrol 58: 291-303
40. Jompa J, McCook LJ (1998) Seaweeds save the reef?!: Sargassum canopy decreases coral bleaching on inshore reefs. Reef Res 8:5
41. Karlson RH (1999) Dynamics of coral communities. Kluwer, Dordrecht
42. Kaufman L (1977) The three spot damselfish: effects on benthic biota of Caribbean coral reefs. In: Proc 3rd Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 1, pp 559-564
43. Keats DW, Chamberlain YM, Baba M (1997) Pneophyllm conicum (Dawson) comb nov. (Rhodophyta, Corallinaceae), a widespread Indo-Pacific non-geniculate coralline algae that overgrows and kills live coral. Bot Mar 40: 263-279
44. Kinsey DW (1988) Coral reef system response to some natural and anthropogenic stresses. Galaxea 7: 113-128
45. Kuta KG, Richardson LL (1997) Black band disease and the fate of diseased coral colonies in the Florida Keys. In: Proc 8th Int Coral Reef Symp, pp 575-578
46. Lang JC, Chornesky EA (1990) Competition between scleractinian reef corals - a review of mechanisms and effects. In: Dubinsky Z (ed) Ecosystems of the world, vol 25. Coral reefs. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 209-252
47. Lapointe BE (1989) Caribbean coral reefs: are they becoming algal reefs? Sea Front 35: 84-91
48. Lapointe BE (1997) Nutrient thresholds for bottom-up control of macroalgal blooms on coral reefs in Jamaica and southeast Florida. Limnol Oceanogr 42: 1119-1131
49. Lewis SM (1986) The role of herbivorous fishes in the organization of a Caribbean reef community. Ecol Monogr 56: 183-200
50. Liddell WD, Ohlhorst SL (1986) Changes in benthic community composition following the mass mortality of Diadema at Jamaica. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 95: 271-278
51. Lirman D (2001) Competition between macroalgae and corals: effects of increased algal biomass on the survivorship and growth of the Caribbean corals Siderastrea siderea, Porites astreoides, and Montastrea faveolata. Coral Reefs (in press)
52. Littler MM (1980) Morphological form and photosynthesis performances of marine macroalgae: tests of a functional/form hypothesis. Bot Mar 22: 161-165
53. Littler MM, Littler DS (1984) Models of tropical reef biogenesis: the contribution of algae. Prog Phycol Res 3: 323-363
54. Littler MM, Littler DS (1997a) Disease-induced mass mortality of crustose coralline algae on coral reefs provides rationale for the conservation of herbivorous fish stocks. In: Proc 8th Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 1, pp 719-724
55. Littler DS, Littler MM (1997b) Epizoic red alga allelopathic (?) to a Caribbean coral. Coral Reefs 16: 168
56. Littler MM, Littler DS (1999) Epithallus sloughing: a self-cleaning mechanism for coralline algae. Coral Reefs 18: 204
57. Littler DS, Littler MM, Bucher KE, Norris JN (1989) Marine plants of the Caribbean: a field guide from Florida to Brazil. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington
58. McArdle BH (1996) Levels of evidence in studies of competition. predation, and disease. N Z J Ecol 20: 7-15
59. McCook LJ (1996) Effects of herbivores and water quality on the distribution of Sargassum on the central Great Barrier Reef: cross-shelf transplants. Mar Ecol Proa Ser 139: 179-192
60. McCook LJ (1997) Effects of herbivory on zonation of Sargassum spp. within fringing reefs of the central Great Barrier Reef. Mar Biol 129: 713-722
61. McCook LJ (1999) Macroalgae, nutrients and phase shifts on coral reefs: scientific issues and management consequences for the Great Barrier Reef. Coral Reefs 18: 357-367
62. McCook LJ (2001) Competition between coral and algal turfs along a gradient of terrestrial runoff in the nearshore central Great Barrier Reef. Coral Reefs (this issue)
63. McCook LJ, Price IR, Klumpp DW (1997) Macroalgae on the GBR: causes or consequences, indicators or models of reef degradation? In: Proc 8th Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 2, pp 1851-1856
64. Meesters EH, Bak RPM (1993) Effects of coral bleaching on tissue regeneration potential and colony survival. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 96: 189-198
65. Meesters EH, Noordeloos M, Bak RPM (1994) Damage and regeneration: links to growth in the reef-building coral Montastrea annularis. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 112: 119-128
66. Meesters EH, Pauchli W, Bak RPM (1997) Predicting regeneration of physical damage on a reef-building coral by regeneration capacity and lesion shape. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 146: 91-99
67. Miller MW (1998) Coral/seaweed competition and the control of reef community structure within and between latitudes. Oceanogr Mar Biol Annu Rev 36: 65-96
68. Miller MW, Hay ME (1996) Coral-seaweed-grazer-nutrient interactions on temperate reefs. Ecol Monogr 663: 323-344
69. Miller MW, Hay ME (1998) Effects of fish predation and seaweed competition on the survival and growth of corals. Oecologia 113: 231-238
70. Morrissey J (1980) Community structure and zonation of macroalgae and hermatypic corals on a fringing reef flat of Magnetic Island (Queensland, Australia). Aquat Bot 8: 91-139
71. Olson AM, Lubchenco J (1990) Competition in seaweeds: linking plant traits to competitive outcomes. J Phycol 26: 1-6
72. Potts DC (1977) Suppression of coral populations by filamentous algae within damselfish territories. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 28: 207-216
73. Raffaelli DG, Raven JA, Poole EJ (1998) Ecological impact of green macroalgal blooms. Oceanogr Mar Biol Annu Rev 36: 97-125
74. Rogers CS, Garrison V, Grober-Dunsmore R (1997) A fishy story about hurricanes and herbivory: seven years of research on a reef in St. John, US Virgin Islands. In: Proc 8th Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 1, pp 555-560
75. Russ GR (1987) Is rate of removal of algae by grazers reduced inside territories of tropical damselfishes? J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 110: 1-17
76. Sammarco PW (1980) Diadema and its relationship to coral spat mortality: grazing, competition, and biological disturbance. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 45: 245-272
77. Sammarco PW (1982) Echinoid grazing as a structuring force in coral communities: whole reef manipulations. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 61: 31-55
78. Sammarco PW, Carleton JH (1981) Damselfish territoriality and coral community structure: reduced grazing, coral recruitment, and effects on coral spat. In: Proc 4th Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 2, pp 525-536
79. Santavy DL, Peters EC (1997) Microbial pests: coral disease in the western Atlantic. In: Proc 8th Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 1, pp 607-612
80. Schoener TW (1983) Field experiments on interspecific competition. Am Nat 122: 240-285
81. Sheppard CRC (1988) Similar trends, different causes: responses of corals to stressed environments in Arabian seas. In: Proc 6th Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 3, pp 297-302
82. Shulman MJ, Robertson DR (1996) Changes in the coral reefs of San Blas, Caribbean, Panama: 1983 to 1990. Coral Reefs 15: 231-236
83. Smith SV, Kimmerer WJ, Laws EA, Brock RE, Walsh TW (1981) Kaneohe Bay sewage diversion experiment: perspectives on ecosystem responses to nutritional perturbation. Pac Sci 35: 279-385
84. Stachowicz JJ, Hay ME (1999) Mutualism and coral persistence: the role of herbivore resistance to algal chemical defense. Ecology 80: 2085-2101
85. Steneck RS (1988) Herbivory on coral reefs: a synthesis. In: Proc 6th Int Coral Reef Symp Publ 1, pp 37-49
86. Steneck RS (1994) Is herbivore loss more damaging to reefs than hurricanes? Case studies from two Caribbean reef systems (1978-1988). In: Ginsburg RN (ed) Proc Conf on The Colloquium on Global Aspects of Coral Reefs: Health, Hazards, and History, University of Miami, Miami, pp 220-226
87. Steneck RS, Dethier MN (1994) A functional group approach to the structure of algal-dominated communities. Oikos 69: 476-498
88. Stimson J, Lamed S, McDermid K (1996) Seasonal growth of the coral reef macroalga Dictyosphaeria cavernosa (Forskal) Borgesen and the effects of nutrient availability, temperature and herbivory on growth rate. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 196: 53-77
89. Strong DR, Simberloff D, Abele LG, Thistle AB (1984) Ecological communities: conceptual issues and the evidence. Princeton University Press, Princeton
90. Tanner JE (1995) Competition between scleractinian corals and macroalgae: an experimental investigation of coral growth, survival and reproduction. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 190: 151-168
91. Umar J, McCook LJ, Price IR (1998) Effects of sediment deposition on the seaweed Sargassum on a fringing coral reef. Coral Reefs 17: 169-177
92. Underwood AJ (1986) The analysis of competition by field experiments. In: Kikkawa J, Anderson DJ (eds) Community ecology: pattern and process. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 240-268
93. van Den Hoek C, Breeman AM, Bak RPM, G Van Buurt (1978) The distribution of algae, corals and gorgonians in relation to depth, light attenuation, water movement and grazing pressure in the fringing coral reef of Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. Aquat Bot 5: 1-46
94. van Woesik R (1998) Lesion healing on massive Porites spp. corals. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 164: 213-220
95. Vine PJ (1974) Effects of algal grazing and aggressive behaviour of the fishes Pomacentrus lividus and Acanthurus sohal on coral-reef ecology. Mar Biol 24: 131-136
96. Williams DM (1986) Temporal variation in the structure of the reef slope fish communities (central Great Barrier Reel): short-term effects of Acanthaster planci infestation. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 28: 157-164
97. Wittenberg M, Hunte W (1992) Effects of eutrophication and sedimentation on juvenile corals. I. Abundance, mortality and community structure. Mar Biol 112: 131-138