A Vicious Circle? Altered Carbon and Nutrient Cycling May Explain the Low Resilience of Caribbean Coral Reefs

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Integrating ecological roles and trophic diversification on coral reefs: multiple lines of evidence identify parrotfishes as microphages (2016, background): “This new hypothesis retains the view that parrotfishes protect reefs from algal overgrowth, but adds that in the Caribbean these fishes also contribute to reef health through the consumption of sponges whose pattern of nutrient cycling can contribute to algal overgrowth (Pawlik et al., 2016).”
Reef sponges facilitate the transfer of coral-derived organic matter to their associated fauna via the sponge loop (2017, background): “…enhance algal growth (Slattery et al. 2013, Easson et al. 2014), it has also been hypothesized that this reciprocal coral−algae nutrient recycling may result in a positive feedback loop further promoting the growth of sponges and algae, potentially at the expense of corals (Pawlik et al. 2016).”
A test of the sponge-loop hypothesis for emergent Caribbean reef sponges (2018, background): “…results in enhanced levels of macroalgalderived DOM; a process termed the ‘vicious circle hypothesis’ because of the detrimental effect that enhanced sponge and macroalgal growth has on the ability of reef-building corals to compete for space in benthic reef communities (Pawlik et al. 2016).”