Coral reefs articles from across Nature Portfolio

This study provides insights into the functional roles of microbial symbionts within the reef-building coral Acropora kenti. The findings reveal molecular mechanisms underpinning coral health and adaptation to local environmental stressors, which may support host resilience in the face of anthropogenic climate change and pollution.

A microsensor study on a reef coral suggests that the photosynthetic activity of symbiotic dinoflagellates, lining the cœlenteron, contributes to changes in the cœlenteric fluid chemistry in response to light and spatial variability.

A mesocosm heating experiment reveals that corals stressed by bleaching and/or heating exude compositionally distinct dissolved organic matter, which in turn yields elevated microbial loads and may increase abundance of copiotrophic and putatively pathogenic bacterioplankton on stressed coral reefs.

A stable isotope study elucidated a nutrient recycling pathway in which the coral holobiont incorporates nutrients from sponge-derived matter and interspecific differences in incorporation align with ecophysiological characteristics of the coral.

An article in Global Change Biology characterizes the diversity and abundance of biogenic volatile organic compounds from two coral species.

One of the most visible impacts of current climate change is the catastrophic bleaching and death of corals in reefs around the world. This issue of Nature Ecology & Evolution and an online Focus highlight recent research documenting the transformation of these systems.

The importance of biodiversity for productive community functioning is emerging as one of a very few general rules in ecology, but evidence has been sparse that it applies in tropical coral reefs—until now.