Three-dimensional species distribution modelling reveals the realized spatial niche for coral recruitment on contemporary Caribbean reefs.

The three-dimensional structure of habitats is a critical component of species' niches driving coexistence in species-rich ecosystems. However, its influence on structuring and partitioning recruitment niches has not been widely addressed. We developed a new method to combine species distribution modelling and structure from motion, and characterized three-dimensional recruitment niches of two ecosystem engineers on Caribbean coral reefs, scleractinian corals and gorgonians.

Growing up is hard to do: a demographic model of survival and growth of Caribbean octocoral recruits.

Background: Among species with size structured demography, population structure is determined by size specific survival and growth rates. This interplay is particularly important among recently settled colonial invertebrates for which survival is low and growth is the only way of escaping the high mortality that small colonies are subject to. Gorgonian corals settling on reefs can grow into colonies of millions of polyps and can be meters tall.

Survive or swim: different relationships between migration potential and larval size in three sympatric Mediterranean octocorals.

Knowledge about migration potential is key to forecasting species distributions in changing environments. For many marine benthic invertebrates, migration happens during reproduction because of larval dispersal. The present study aims to test whether larval size can be used as a surrogate for migration potential arising from larval longevity, competence, sinking, or swimming behavior.

Resilience of Octocoral Forests to Catastrophic Storms.

After centuries of human-mediated disturbances, Caribbean reef communities are vastly different from those described in the 1950s. Many are functionally dominated by macroalgae, but this community state represents only one of several possibilities into which present-day coral reefs can transition. Octocorals have always been abundant on Caribbean reefs, but increases in their abundance over the last few decades suggest that arborescent octocorals have the potential to expand their populations on reefs that hitherto had been dominated by scleractinians.

Detrimental effects of ocean acidification on the economically important Mediterranean red coral (Corallium rubrum).

The mean predicted decrease of 0.3-0.4 pH units in the global surface ocean by the end of the century has prompted urgent research to assess the potential effects of ocean acidification on the marine environment, with strong emphasis on calcifying organisms.