The effects of trophic interactions and spatial competition on algal community composition on Hawaiian coral reefs

Much of coral reef ecology has focused on how human impacts change coral reefs to macroalgal reefs. However, macroalgae may not always be a good indicator of reef decline, especially on reefs with significant sea urchin populations, as found in Kenya and Hawaii. This study tests the effects of trophic interactions (i.e. herbivory by fishes and sea urchins) and spatial competition (between algae and coral) on algal community structure of reefs surrounding two Hawaiian Islands that vary in their level of human impacts. Reef‐building organisms (corals and crustose coralline algae) were less abundant and turf algae were more abundant on Maui as compared to Lanai, where human impacts are lower. In contrast to previous studies, we found no evidence that macroalgae increased with human impacts. Instead, low turf and macroalgal abundance were best explained by the interactive effects of coral cover and sea urchin abundance. Fishing sea urchin predators appeared to have cascading effects on the benthic community. The absence of sea urchin predators and high sea urchin densities correspond to a disproportionately high abundance of turf and crustose coralline algae. We propose that high turf algal abundance is a better indicator of reef decline in Hawaii than high macroalgal abundance because turf abundance was highest on reefs with low coral cover and few fish. The results of this study emphasize that understanding changes in community composition are context‐dependent and that not all degraded reefs look the same.     

Biological structures as a source of habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity on the deep ocean margins

Biological structures exert a major influence on species diversity at both local and regional scales on deep continental margins. Some organisms use other species as substrates for attachment, shelter, feeding or parasitism, but there may also be mutual benefits from the association. Here, we highlight the structural attributes and biotic effects of the habitats that corals, sea pens, sponges and xenophyophores offer other organisms. The environmental setting of the biological structures influences their species composition. The importance of benthic species as substrates seems to increase with depth as the complexity of the surrounding geological substrate and food supply decline. There are marked differences in the degree of mutualistic relationships between habitat-forming taxa. This is especially evident for scleractinian corals, which have high numbers of facultative associates (commensals) and few obligate associates (mutualists), and gorgonians, with their few commensals and many obligate associates. Size, flexibility and architectural complexity of the habitat-forming organism are positively related to species diversity for both sessile and mobile species. This is mainly evident for commensal species sharing a facultative relationship with their host. Habitat complexity is enhanced by the architecture of biological structures, as well as by biological interactions. Colony morphology has a great influence on feeding efficiency for suspension feeders. Suspension feeding, habitat-forming organisms modify the environment to optimize their food uptake. This environmental advantage is also passed on to associated filter-feeding species. These effects are poorly understood but represent key points for understanding ecosystems and biodiversity on continental margins. In this paper we explore the contributions of organisms and the biotic structures they create (rather than physical modifications) to habitat heterogeneity and diversity on the deep continental margins.     

华蓥山地区二叠纪生物礁顶部钙结壳的岩石学特征及成因探讨

华蓥山地区上二叠统长兴阶生物礁顶部普遍存在一套数米至十余米厚的钙结壳．含有钙结壳中常见的渗滤豆石、钙质结核、蜂窝状构造、根模、钙化细菌丝体、花瓣构造、微型钟乳石等典型组构，并伴有变形构造、溶蚀构造和角砾化等现象。这套钙结壳的发现对研究华南二、三叠纪之交的古气候，古地理和沉积发育史具有重要意义，本文主要描述钙结壳的岩石学特征，并简要讨论了本地区钙结壳的成因。     

POPULATION DYNAMICS AND PRODUCTION OF NEANTHES JAPONIC A (IZUKA)IN A SHRIMP POND

During late February to mid-March, 1991, when mature N. japonica swarmed in the sea surface off Jimo County, Qingdao, seawater containing numerous early embryos was pumped into a nearby 2.7 ha. muddy-sand shrimp pond, where the embryos continued to develop. 800000 Penaeus chinensis seedlings were introduced into the pond on May 30, 1991. Monthly benthic samplings were carried out to determine the population dynamics and production of N. japonica in this atypical environ -ment.The density of N. japonica varied from 0 to 20400 ind./m2. The predation of P. chinensis was considered to be responsible for the mass mortality of N. japonica in June through July, when the worms were 2.2-3.3cm in length and lived in the top 2-4cm sediment. From August to September of 1991, the hottest period in the site, there was no substantial mortality of N. japonica as reported in earlier literature. This was explained by the deeper burrowing of the' worms that protected them from predation by shrimps.Monthly biomass ranged f     

Potentialities,uncertainties and complexities in the response of coral reefs to future sea-level rise

Coral islands formed of largely unconsolidated sands only a few metres above sea level are thought to be particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise consequent upon global warming. However, scenarios which predict catastrophic flooding and loss of island area need reassessment, particularly in the light of the continued downwards revision of projected rates of future sea-level rise. Revised questions concern the interactions between reef growth and sea-level change, biophysical constraints on coral growth, and the importance to reef systems of potential changes in the magnitude, frequency and location of tropical cyclones and hurricanes. It is clear that most reefs have the growth potential to meet even the highest of future sea-level rise scenarios, but too little is known about physiological and physical constraints to reef growth to adequately evaluate the importance of these two factors in constraining this potential at the present time. Future sea-level rise in the tropical oceans, and coral reef responses, will take place against a backdrop of inter-regional differences in Holocene sea levels, resulting from the varying interaction of eustatic and hydro-isostatic processes. These differences have generated varying constraints on the development of modern reefs and varying inherited topographies upon which future sea-level changes will be superimposed. These controls are particularly important in assessing differences in vulnerability to future sea-level rise for reef islands in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.     

The main issues affecting coasts of the Indian and western Pacific Oceans: a meta-analysis from Seas at the Millennium

A review of the world oceans in three volumes by 365 scientists, provides scope for several ‘meta-analyses' of the main problems affecting over 100 areas in the year 2000. This article summarises the main issues affecting a sub-set of the reviewed areas, covering Asian, African and Arabian countries dealt with in Volume 2, which included over 50 articles. From all issues raised, assessment is made of the nature of the major ones, including evaluation of reasons why so many of them remain important issues after so much attention to them. These include long standing problems, several problems more newly flagged as becoming particularly important, the issue of global warming and no less than three related issues connected with fishing and over exploitation. One or two issues such as industrial pollution and sewage, previously considered of almost universal concern, almost traditional pollution issues even, continue to feature strongly for some countries, but while these were almost always referred to in Seas chapters, by and large these categories appear not to be the most pressing of issues today, except in localized areas (albeit areas where huge numbers of people live). Perhaps other issues have simply taken over. They are excluded from this article.     

南沙群岛岛礁地形地貌TM影像特征分析

根据南沙海区的地形地貌特征，利用TM图像，对不同的珊瑚礁、珊瑚沙发育状况和岛礁的地质特征与生态特征进行了分析，研究了水下礁、滩的物质组份、发育程度及TM影像特征，提出了30m以浅岛礁分类方法，查清了南沙海域岛、礁、滩、沙的形态和分布，细化并完善了南沙群岛岛礁分类。     

Early-Middle Permian Reef Frameworks and Reef-building Models in the Eastern Kunlun Mountains

Reef frameworks and building models of the Early-Middle Permian in the eastern Kunlun Mountains have been verified through studies of reef-building communities, palaeoecology and carbonate facies. The eastern Kunlun reefs are built mainly by 6 reef-building communities, which include 11 major categories of frame-building organisms and 6 categories of reef-associated organisms. Eight types of reef-frames have been distinguished and eleven kinds of rocks identified to belong to 6 reef facies. Three sorts of reefs classified by previous researchers, namely mudmounds, knoll reefs and walled reefs, are well developed in the study area. Such reef-facies association and reef distribution show that there are 4 models of reef growth and development, i.e. the tidal-bank knoll-reef model, the plateau-margin wall-reef model, the composite wall-reef model and the deep-water mudmound model. The reefs are mainly constructed by calcareous sponge and calcareous algae, which are similar to all Permian reefs in other area     

南海西北部珊瑚礁记录所反映的新构造运动*

珊瑚礁是发育于热带海洋环境中由生物作用和地质作用共同形成的地质体,具有独特的新构造运动意义。南海西北部珊瑚礁记录所反映的新构造运动主要有火山活动、地壳升降运动和地震活动等。珊瑚礁区第四纪火山活跃,到现代已停止活动,部分火山构成珊瑚礁的基座,个别出露海面为火山岛;地壳升降运动差异较大,雷州半岛西南部珊瑚礁呈上升趋势,上升率为0.02~0.05mm/a;西沙群岛等岛礁地壳运动则呈下降趋势,下降率为-0.07~-0.10mm/a,岛礁中的造礁石珊瑚生长率、礁顶和灰沙岛的堆积率均相当于或大于地壳下降率与现代海平面上升率的总和;南海西北部珊瑚礁区内地震活动较强,尤其是1994年12月31日和1995年1月10日在雷州半岛西南部海域发生了6.1级和6.2 级地震,这两次地震对该区珊瑚礁的发育有较大的影响。     

Microbialite of anoxic condition from Permian-Triassic transition in Guizhou,China

Spherical microfossils are present in the Hindeodus parvus zone of the Lower Triassic in Ziyun,Guizhou Province. They generally range from 0.15 to 0.30 mm across,with micritic wall and filled by micro-sparry calcites,and are evenly scattered in micritic matrix. Their abundance makes the rock as-signed to microbialites. The accompanied organisms include ostracods and algal mat,but no gastro-pods or bivalves. Presence of small (<7 μm) pyrite framboids indicates that this bed formed in anoxic conditions. In some sections,this bed is overlain and underlain by tidal-flat micritic limestone with microgastropods and small burrows. Occurrence only in deposits on reef top indicates that the micro-bial organism was benthic,and needed sunlight in life. The size of the microbial fossil exceeds that of any bacteria or cyanobacteria. Thus,it does not belong to these two phyla. It may belong to lower green algae,and is assigned to a new species in a new genus,Ziyunosphaeridium sinensis gen. et sp. nov. Up to now,the rocks described as microbialites from the Permian-Triassic transition include six types: (1) porous micritic limestone such as that descried from Japan by Sano and Nakashima (1997),(2) limestone with rich globular microfossils such as that described from the Nanpanjiang Basin in China by Lehrmann (1999),(3) dendroidal limestone such as that described from the vicinity of Chongqing by Kershaw et al. (1999),(4) spherical microbial limestone adapted to anoxic environments described from Ziyun,Guizhou reported in this paper,(5) limestone with cyanobacterial fossils such as that described by Wang et al. (2005),and (6) stromatolites. All these microbialites are not reefs in the proper sense,and the argument that Permian reef ecosystems extended into the Mesozoic is incorrect.