Peter J Mumby

..Similarly, remote sensing may provide a novel scaling perspective to biological studies of pigmentation in reef organisms...

..Marine reserves are not a panacea for conservation but can facilitate the recovery of corals from disturbance and may help sustain the biodiversity of organisms that depend on a complex three-dimensional coral habitat...

..g. productivity and herbivory). Most reef conservation efforts are directed toward reserve implementation, but new approaches are needed to sustain ecosystem function in exploited areas...

..In contrast, the representation of species or functional classes ensured inclusion of all processes and services in the reserve network...

..Such targets may help reef managers face the challenge of addressing global disturbance at local scales...

..A speculative yet rational inference from the model is that failure to manage scarid populations outside reserves will have a profoundly negative impact on the functioning of the reserve system and status of non-reserve reefs...

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..Reducing herbivore exploitation as part of an ecosystem-based management strategy for coral reefs appears to be justified...

..Increased grazing caused a fourfold reduction in the cover of macroalgae, which, because they are the principal competitors of corals, highlights the potential importance of reserves for coral reef resilience...

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..Caribbean marine reserves should be replicated at scales of hundreds of kilometers, particularly for species-rich habitats, to capture important intra-habitat variability in community structure, function, and an ecosystem process...

..We discuss the implications of our results for the design of marine reserves...

..annularis...

..Thus, chronic overfishing will probably prevent natural biocontrol of lionfishes in the Caribbean...

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..Conservation efforts should protect connected corridors of mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reefs...

..These detailed patterns can be used to elucidate ecological responses to climatic change in the region...

..the projected success of P. porites on Caribbean reefs through high reproductive output, resistance to disease and rapid growth rates may be attenuated through selective corallivory by parrotfish...

..By altering local fish abundances, temperature changes will have profound effects on the structure, functioning and services of marine ecosystems...

..6. Our results reveal that long-lived massive corals can propagate using asexual methods even though sexual strategies predominate...

..Below this ecological threshold carbonate budgets typically become net negative and threaten reef accretion. Collectively, these data suggest that recent ecological declines are now suppressing Caribbean reef growth potential...

..The results are encouraging, and they indicate that CLS techniques can be used to identify the appropriate scale at which to monitor ecosystem trends on the basis of the dynamics of only one of a disparate suite of habitat types...