The Ecology of Coral Reefs, Vol. 3 PDF Download

Author: Marjorie L. Reaka
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781332301256
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Excerpt from The Ecology of Coral Reefs, Vol. 3: Results of a Workshop on Coral Reef Ecology Held by the American Society of Zoologists, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 1983 This volume presents the results of a workshop on the ecology of coral reefs that was held at the American Society of Zoologists meetings in Philadelphia, December 1983. The workshop, which included four symposium presentations, four discussion sections, and presentations of undersea research facilities by NOAA's Office of Undersea Research, was sponsored by the Division of Ecology of the ASZ. The four symposium talks and discussion sections addressed the topics of growth and life history patterns, recruitment, community organization, and community metabolism in coral reef systems. The workshop was unusually well attended (attendance in the Ecology Division of the ASZ was 30% higher than in previous years and two additional contributed paper sessions in the Division of Ecology were devoted specifically to coral reef ecology), and vigorous group discussions continued well into the night. The objective of the workshop was to focus attention on what we do and do not know about the ecology of coral reefs, particularly along depth gradients, and to assess the most important directions for future research on coral reefs. A previous volume in this series (Reaka, 1983), containing symposium presentations and contributed papers in each of the four topical areas, was made available at the Coral Reef Workshop. The present volume presents the main conclusions derived from the discussion sections (Chapter II) and additional contributed papers on the ecology of coral reefs (Chapter III). In Chapter II, the discussion leaders summarize the topics discussed and the conclusions reached in each discussion section. William McFarland points out that astonishingly little is known about recruitment in coral reef species. He identifies some of the reasons for our lack of knowledge in this area, not the least of which is the prevalence of planktonic larvae in reef organisms. The production of hundreds to millions of tiny dispersing planktotrophic larvae distinguishes marine animals from those in every other major environment. Furthermore, the incidence of species with long-lived planktotrophic larvae is inversely related to latitude (Thorson, 1950; Mileikovsky, 1971), so that, in contrast to marine communities from high latitudes, the vast majority of coral reef species produce planktonic dispersing young. This phenomenon has profound implications for the population dynamics, community organization, and even evolutionary patterns of marine species compared to those in terrestrial or fresh water environments. In marine species thousands of recruits may occur in local areas in some years but not in others; planktonic larvae may settle in their parent population, may be carried to distant habitable sites, or even may be swept out to sea without any favorable substrate having been encountered. McFarland discusses several mechanisms that enhance the predictability of local recruitment on coral reefs, including the timing and dynamics of reproduction, currents or eddies that may return larvae to their parent populations, and behavioral patterns of the larvae and settling juveniles themselves. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com