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Reply to: Conclusions of low extinction risk for most species of reef-building corals are premature

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 6, pages 359–360 (2022)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 14 February 2022

replying to P. R. Muir et al. Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01659-5 (2022)

Our study1 revealed that approximately half a trillion corals inhabit three reef habitats across the Pacific biodiversity gradient, similar to the number of trees in the Amazon2. We documented a five-orders-of-magnitude spectrum of commonness and rarity among species, and showed that the existing Red List assessments for 80 of these species3 are poorly correlated with their abundances. We found, for example, that many of the coral species listed at present as being the most vulnerable to global extinction are also numerically hyperabundant and geographically widespread. Conversely, many species that we found to be rare, are nonetheless not currently considered to be at risk. The purpose of our study was not to create a new Red List assessment of corals but rather to argue that, on the basis of the poor correspondence between abundances in our surveys and the current Red List classifications3, a major revision to the Red List is needed.

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References

  1. Dietzel, A., Bode, M., Connolly, S. R. & Hughes, T. P. The population sizes and global extinction risk of reef-building coral species at biogeographic scales. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 5, 663–669 (2021).

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  2. Hubbell, S. P. et al. How many tree species are there in the Amazon and how many of them will go extinct? Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105, 11498–11504 (2008).

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  4. Muir, P. R. et al. Conclusions of low extinction risk for most species of reef-building corals are premature. Nat. Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01659-5 (2022).

  5. Richards, Z. T., Syms, C., Wallace, C. C., Muir, P. R. & Willis, B. L. Multiple occupancy–abundance patterns in staghorn coral communities. Divers. Distrib. 19, 884–895 (2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia

    Andreas Dietzel, Michael Bode, Sean R. Connolly & Terry P. Hughes

  2. School of Mathematical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Michael Bode

  3. College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia

    Sean R. Connolly

  4. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Republic of Panama

    Sean R. Connolly

Authors
  1. Andreas Dietzel
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  2. Michael Bode
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  3. Sean R. Connolly
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  4. Terry P. Hughes
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Contributions

All authors contributed equally to drafting this response.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andreas Dietzel.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Ecology & Evolution thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Dietzel, A., Bode, M., Connolly, S.R. et al. Reply to: Conclusions of low extinction risk for most species of reef-building corals are premature. Nat Ecol Evol 6, 359–360 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01660-y

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