Overview
- Clarifies the dynamic balance of coral-reef processes at all scales
- Examines how recent and local changes affect these balances
- Explains self-reinforcing ecological, economic and technological mechanisms degrading coral reefs
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
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Table of contents (12 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This volume investigates the effects of human activities on coral reefs, which provide important life-supporting systems to surrounding natural and human communities. It examines the self-reinforcing ecological, economic and technological mechanisms that degrade coral reef ecosystems around the world.
Topics include reefs and limestones in Earth history; the interactions between corals and their symbiotic algae; diseases of coral reef organisms; the complex triangle between reef fishes, seaweeds and corals; coral disturbance and recovery in a changing world.
In addition, the authors take key recent advances in DNA studies into account which provides new insights into the population biology, patterns of species distributions, recent evolution and vulnerabilities to environmental stresses. These DNA analyses also provide new understandings of the limitations of coral responses and scales of management necessary to sustain coral reefs in their present states.
Coral reefs have been essential sources of food, income and resources to humans for millennia. This book details the delicate balance that exists within these ecosystems at all scales, from geologic time to cellular interactions and explores how recent global and local changes influence this relationship. It will serve as an indispensable resource for all those interested in learning how human activities have affected this vital ecosystem around the world.
Editors and Affiliations
About the editor
Charles Birkeland received his PhD from the University of Washington with Robert T. Paine as his advisor. He was a post-doc for 5 years at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, and then a Professor at the University of Guam Marine Laboratory for 25 years. He was the 3rd President of the International Society for Reef Studies. From 2000 – 2010 he was a professor with the Department of Zoology, University of Hawaii.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Coral Reefs in the Anthropocene
Editors: Charles Birkeland
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7249-5
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015
Hardcover ISBN: 978-94-017-7248-8Published: 18 November 2015
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-024-0370-1Published: 23 August 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-94-017-7249-5Published: 03 November 2015
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 271
Number of Illustrations: 52 b/w illustrations, 43 illustrations in colour
Topics: Conservation Biology/Ecology, Freshwater & Marine Ecology, Ecosystems, Evolutionary Biology