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The health status and future of tropical coral reefs, as tourist destinations, are regularly subjected to media coverage. Many documentaries recognize the natural beauty and biological richness of the Australian Great Barrier Reef and French Polynesian lagoons but point to the equally significant risk that would result from current global warming and human-made hazards. The future of coral reefs is usually a matter of death foretold, real or purely imaginary. In this context, it has become necessary to differentiate between what is falling within the reality of scientific facts or fantasy. To this end, the present general review aims at (1) defining the conditions and life requirements of reef-building corals; (2) the history of corals along with that of a number of associated, skeletal organisms involved in reef-building since the very beginning, i.e. the last 540 million years, including the ups and downs they have experienced; (3) giving special reference to the development patterns of recent and modern reefs; (4) projecting corals and reefs into a still unknown future. Understanding how corals and reefs have originated, how they have been able to face the major biological crises which have punctuated the Earth's history, and how they have survived is a prerequisite to better gain a significant picture of their future.
Introduction: The reef phenomenon
Into the intimacy of corals, builders of the sea
1 Taxonomic affiliation
2 Morphology and anatomy
3 Symbiosis
4 Biomineralization
5 Nutrition
The modern times
1 Biozonation
2 Reef morphotypes
3 Geographical distribution
4 Reef growth
5 Morpho-sedimentary processes
6 Internal structure
7 A brief history of reef development
8 Record of environmental changes
The long march of corals
1 The time of the origins
2 The time of diversification
The highs and lows of the reef phenomenon
1 Causes
2 The main biological crises
3 The response of corals and reefs to crises: from extinction to recovery
4 Conclusions
Coral reefs in the face of their fate
1 Disruptive agents in action
2 The response of corals and coral reefs
3 The evolution of coral islets
Conclusions
Bibliography
Indices
Bertrand Martin-Garin is an associate professor at Aix-Marseille University. His skills are mainly guided by cnidarians – corals and jellyfish; coral reefs – in all their states. A palaeontologist and marine biologist, the study of its organisms takes him on a spatiotemporal journey through the oceans and the seas of the Jurassic, the Miocene and the recent with themes related to climate and biodiversity, ecotoxicology, or mathematical concepts.
Lucien F. Montaggioni is a professor emeritus at Aix-Marseille University. His skills refer to sedimentology and palaeoecology of coral reefs and shallow-water carbonate platforms, from the Oligo-Miocene to Recent, in relation to palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. His research has focused on systems from islands in the Western Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Australia, Myanmar, New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
