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Comment
. 2012 Oct 30;109(44):17734-5.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1215836109. Epub 2012 Oct 17.

Iconic coral reef degraded despite substantial protection

Nancy Knowlton  1
Affiliations
Comment

Iconic coral reef degraded despite substantial protection

Nancy Knowlton. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
GBR. (A) High coral cover is typical of the far northern GBR, where disturbances by cyclones and crown-of-thorns starfish are infrequent. (B) Repeated outbreaks by the coral-eating crown-of-thorns seastars have devastated reefs like that shown here. (C) Crown-of-thorns seastars feed on coral. (D) Tropical cyclones are also a major cause of recent coral mortality, as illustrated by a reef seen a few months after it was hit by a category 4 cyclone. (E) Structures provided by reef-building corals are an essential habitat for many of the hundreds of thousands of species associated with coral reefs. (Photographs courtesy of Katharina Fabricius, Australian Institute of Marine Science.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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