Caribbean reef development was independent of coral diversity over 28 million years
Caribbean reef development was independent of coral diversity over 28 million years
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DOI：
10.1126/science.1152197
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发表时间：
2008-03-14
期刊：
影响因子：
56.9
通讯作者：
Budd, Ann F.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Johnson, Kenneth G.;Jackson, Jeremy B. C.;Budd, Ann F.
人们对珊瑚物种多样性、珊瑚礁发育和珊瑚礁生态系统功能的自然变化之间的关系知之甚少。最近的珊瑚多样性在不同地理区域之间相差十倍，但珊瑚礁的生长速度大致相似，这表明多样性对于珊瑚礁的发育并不重要。除了环境条件之外，多样性的差异可能还反映了长期生物历史的区域差异。我们结合新发表的化石和地层数据，比较了过去 2800 万年来热带西大西洋珊瑚多样性和珊瑚礁发育的变化。珊瑚礁发育与珊瑚多样性无关，灭绝后形成的最大珊瑚礁区使多样性减少了 50%。因此，高度多样性对于珊瑚礁的生长和持续存在并不重要。
The relationship between natural variations in coral species diversity, reef development, and ecosystem function on coral reefs is poorly understood. Recent coral diversity varies 10- fold among geographic regions, but rates of reef growth are broadly similar, suggesting that diversity is unimportant for reef development. Differences in diversity may reflect regional differences in long- term biotic history in addition to environmental conditions. Using a combination of new and published fossil and stratigraphic data, we compared changes in coral diversity and reef development within the tropical western Atlantic over the past 28 million years. Reef development was unrelated to coral diversity, and the largest reef tracts formed after extinction had reduced diversity by 50%. High diversity is thus not essential for the growth and persistence of coral reefs.