Changes to coral reef communities: more than just fish and corals
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Published:2012
Pat Hutchings, 2012. "Changes to coral reef communities: more than just fish and corals", Wildlife and Climate Change: Towards robust conservation strategies for Australian fauna, Daniel Lunney, Hutchings Pat
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Worldwide coral reefs are declining in health due to anthropogenic impacts including widespread bleaching or corals which often leads to death of the coral colony. Not only are we witnessing impacts on the cover of live coral and fish populations, but also we are losing the tremendous diversity of other animals which are dependent on live corals. To date these losses of the other invertebrates (non corals) have been largely neglected and this paper attempts to rectify this and also to highlight the impact of these. However other groups of organisms responsible for bioerosion of coral substrates initially benefit from an increase in dead coral substrate available. So with climate change and other anthropogenic impacts there are winners and losers, but the long term outlook for coral reefs as we know them today is depressing and will have major impacts on the economy of many developing countries in the tropics which rely heavily on reefs for food, coastal protection and tourism.