Cyanobacteria in Coral Reef Ecosystems: A Review

By L. Charpy, B. Casareto, M. Langlade, Yoshimi Suzuki. 2012

134 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Cyanobacteria have dominated marine environments and have been reef builders on Earth for more than three million years (myr). Cyanobacteria still play an essential role in modern coral reef ecosystems by forming a major component of epiphytic, epilithic, and endolithic communities as well as of microbial mats. Cyanobacteria are grazed by reef organisms and also provide nitrogen to the coral reef ecosystems through nitrogen fixation. Recently, new unicellular cyanobacteria that express nitrogenase were found in the open ocean and in coral reef lagoons. Furthermore, cyanobacteria are important in calcification and decalcification. All limestone surfaces have a layer of boring algae in which cyanobacteria often play a dominant role. Cyanobacterial symbioses are abundant in coral reefs; the most common hosts are sponges and ascidians. Cyanobacteria use tactics beyond space occupation to inhibit coral recruitment. Cyanobacteria can also form pathogenic microbial consortia in association with other microbes on living coral tissues, causing coral tissue lysis and death, and considerable declines in coral reefs. In deep lagoons, coccoid cyanobacteria are abundant and are grazed by ciliates, heteroflagellates, and the benthic coral reef community. Cyanobacteria produce metabolites that act as attractants for some species and deterrents for some grazers of the reef communities.

Subfields: Biotechnology, Ecology, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/677ae0644bb74e036445a6003fb2f7c527a29b27

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In Biotechnology

1. D. Bourne
2. N. Webster

In Ecology

1. R. Bak
2. D. Bourne
3. N. Webster
4. M. Nugues
5. Peter J. Mumby
6. Kathleen M. Morrow
7. N. Chadwick

In Oceanography

1. R. Bak
2. M. Nugues
3. Peter J. Mumby
4. Kathleen M. Morrow
5. N. Chadwick

Citations in the corpus

• Microbial indicators as a diagnostic tool for assessing water quality and climate stress in coral reef ecosystems (2017, background): “The fixation of inorganic nitrogen is another key microbial function in coral reef environments, where nutrients are scarce and thus limit growth (Charpy et al. 2012).”
• 40 Years of benthic community change on the Caribbean reefs of Curaçao and Bonaire: the rise of slimy cyanobacterial mats (2017, background): “Several studies describe the occurrence of harmful blooms, particularly of thermo-tolerant species (e.g. Hallock 2005; Paul et al. 2005; Paul 2008; Smith and Schindler 2009; Charpy et al. 2012).”