Joel K. Llopiz

Apr 4, 2024 | enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com | Cynthia Becker |Laura Weber |Joel K. Llopiz |T. Aran Mooney

INTRODUCTION Coral reef ecosystems in the Caribbean are ghost towns of the habitats that they were 50 years ago. Hard corals, the keystone organisms that are responsible for building reefs, have declined by 20%–30% in the Caribbean (Gardner et al., 2003; Guest et al., 2018). Anthropogenic and natural stressors including climate change, overfishing, disease, eutrophication and hurricanes contribute to these losses in coral cover, leaving space for algae to thrive (Hughes, 1994).