Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 Mar;9(3):271-80.
doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00866.x.

Local and regional scale recovery of Diadema promotes recruitment of scleractinian corals

Local and regional scale recovery of Diadema promotes recruitment of scleractinian corals

Robert C Carpenter et al. Ecol Lett. 2006 Mar.

Abstract

The phase change from coral to macroalgal dominance on many Caribbean reefs was exacerbated by the mortality of the echinoid Diadema antillarum in 1983-1984, and until recently, this sea urchin has remained rare on reefs throughout the western Atlantic. By the late 1990s, Diadema started to reappear in large numbers on some Jamaican reefs, and by 2000, the high densities were correlated with significantly greater abundances of juvenile corals. Here, we show that dense populations of Diadema now occur over a multi-kilometre-wide scale at six locations scattered along a 4100 km arc across the entire Caribbean. In all cases, these dense populations are found in shallow water (< 6 m depth) on outer reef communities and are associated with reduced macroalgal cover and enhanced coral recruitment. We conclude that population recovery of Diadema is occurring at both local and regional scales, and that grazing by this echinoid is creating conditions favouring the recruitment of corals.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources