Chronic parrotfish grazing impedes coral recovery after bleaching

By R. Rotjan, J. Dimond, D. Thornhill, J. Leichter, Brian Helmuth, Dustin W. Kemp, S. Lewis. Coral reefs, 2006

83 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0710858f50cd28e92f72d06539a08e8aa9ab9c64

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Citations in the corpus

Diversity and functional importance of coral‐feeding fishes on tropical coral reefs (2008, background): “Chaetodon kleinii F Indo-Pacific Gut Sano (1989), Pratchett (2005)”
Herbivory versus corallivory: are parrotfish good or bad for Caribbean coral reefs? (2009, background): “A study of zooxanthellae densities in the coral Montastraea spp. found that recovery rates shortly after a minor bleaching event (and hurricane) were lower in colonies that had experienced some parrotfish predation ([6 scars) than in colonies that had no grazing scars (Rotjan et al. 2006).”
Impact of coral predators on tropical reefs (2008, background): “…or corallivory, represents another biotic stressor that can adversely affect coral fitness and accelerate rates of coral decline (Knowlton et al. 1990, Rotjan et al. 2006), yet little attention has been paid to the role corallivores might play in maintaining or conserving coral reef ecosystems.”
Multiple symbiotic partnerships are common in scleractinian corals, but not in octocorals: Comment on Goulet (2006) (2007, background): “Together with 8 more recent studies (Banaszak et al. 2006, Berkelmans & Van Oppen 2006, Garren et al. 2006, Rotjan et al. 2006, Thornhill et al. 2006b, Ulstrup et al. 2006, Warner et al. 2006, Apprill & Gates 2007), this literature is critical to a metaanalysis of coral flexibility, because these…”
Monitoring functional groups of herbivorous reef fishes as indicators of coral reef resilience : a practical guide for coral reef managers in the Asia Pacific region (2009, background): “…benefit to coral reef resilience, some herbivores (notably some parrotfish species) may also have detrimental effects on coral reef resilience in some instances by consuming live coral in addition to algae (Bellwood and Choat 1990, McClanahan et al 2005, Rotjan and Lewis 2005, Rotjan et al 2006).”
Phase shifts and the role of herbivory in the resilience of coral reefs (2007, background): “Rotjan et al. (2006) demonstrated that scarid grazing had the potential to reduce coral fitness and retard the recovery of coral colonies following bleaching.”
Nutritional ecology of marine herbivorous fishes: ten years on (2009, background): “There is mounting evidence that parrotfishes may not only remove large amounts of living coral (Bellwood et al. 2003), but through grazing scars predispose coral to infection by bacteria and ciliates, especially under conditions of environmental stress (Rotjan & Lewis 2006; Rotjan et al. 2006).”