As the balance between erosional and constructive processes on coral reefs tilts in favor of framework loss under human-induced local and global change, many reef habitats worldwide degrade and flatten. The resultant generation of coral rubble and the beds they form can have lasting effects on reef communities and structural complexity, threatening the continuity of reef ecological functions and the services they provide. To comprehensively capture changing framework processes and predict their evolution in the context of climate change, heavily colonized rubble fragments were exposed to ocean acidification (OA) conditions for 55 days.
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