Abstract
Environmentally adapted and resistant hard and soft coral communities within the high-latitude Asia–Pacific marginal distribution zone are thriving, despite their comparably stressful environment (unfavorable winter water temperature and light regimes). Korea’s Jeju Island is famous for its diverse and abundant soft coral communities, which coexist with reef-building hard corals. Although antagonistic interactions between soft and hard corals generally feature the soft coral as the winner, we observed a soft coral of the species Dendronephthya gigantea completely enclosed by the encrusting hard coral Montipora millepora accompanied by a general decrease in soft coral and increase in M. millepora abundances. This indicates an ongoing species/habitat shift with significant impacts on the current state of corals living at their geographic limit.
Funder
Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology
Subject
Nature and Landscape Conservation,Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous),Ecological Modeling,Ecology
Cited by
4 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献