Community Structure of Coral Reefs on Opposite Sides of the Isthmus of Panama
Author:
- 8 November 1974
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 186 (4163) , 543-545
Abstract
Competition for space among reef corals includes interspecific destruction by extracoelenteric digestion, rapid growth, and overtopping. No Caribbean species excels in all strategies, and on western Caribbean coral reefs there is a positive correlation between coral abundance and diversity. On eastern Pacific coral reefs, however, Pocillopora damicornis excludes other corals, and on these reefs there is an inverse relation between coral abundance and diversity, except in areas where disturbances, such as Acanthaster predation, offset space monopolization.Keywords
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