Coral reefs studies and threats in Malaysia: a mini review

Coral reefs in Malaysia are about 4,006 km² with over 550 species contributed to nation’s economy. Coral reefs studies and threats in Malaysia have been reviewed briefly. Perspectives are addressed as coral reefs studies, threats, gaps and future studies. Coral reefs in Malaysia are being damaged at an increasing rate where it faces natural and anthropogenic stresses. Excellent summaries are available in terms of coral reefs cover throughout Malaysia however scarce in terms of qualitative, quantitative and biogeographical data. There are also limited studies on heavy metals concentration in corals skeleton studies. Poor to fair conditions of coral reefs in Peninsular Malaysia is due to increases of sedimentation and tourism impacts. Overfishing and fish blasting were main threats of coral reefs damage in Sabah. In Sarawak, coral reefs are threatened by high sedimentation and sand mining. The 1998–1999 bleaching event also affected coral reefs in Malaysia due to climate change. Gaps in coral reefs studies can be completed by continuous collaborations between local and international researchers as well as research by local universities. Economic valuation, policy analysis and community participation are directions in future coral reefs studies in Malaysia. Future studies are to understand effects of management on coral reefs health and impact of pollution on coral reefs growth with a standard coral reefs methodology. Established legal systems to reduce threats received by coral reefs are also need to be introduced. Role of science-driven management with community participation and media mass are also gaps to be highlighted in future studies.     

The reef building coral Stylophora pistillata uses stored carbohydrates to maintain ATP levels under thermal stress

Coral Reefs - Coral reefs are on the brink of collapse from global warming and associated coral bleaching. Coral bleaching is the loss of algal symbionts from the coral tissue. The reduction in...     

Contact with turf algae alters the coral microbiome: contact versus systemic impacts

Coral Reefs - Coral reefs are degrading to algae-dominated reefs worldwide, with alterations of coral microbiomes commonly co-occurring with reef demise. The severe thermal anomaly during the 2016...     

Increasing coral calcification in Orbicella faveolata and Pseudodiploria strigosa at Flower Garden Banks,Gulf of Mexico

Coral Reefs - Coral reefs are globally in decline and western Atlantic reefs have experienced the greatest losses in live coral cover of any region. The Flower Garden Banks (FGB) in the Gulf of...     

Abiotic and biotic controls on coral recovery 16 years after mass bleaching

Coral Reefs - As climate changes increase heat stress on tropical ecosystems, the long-term persistence of coral reefs requires rapid coral recovery following coral bleaching events. Using the...     

Two offshore coral species show greater acclimatization capacity to environmental variation than nearshore counterparts in southern Belize

Coral Reefs - Coral reefs are enduring decline due to the intensifying impacts of anthropogenic global change. This widespread decline has resulted in increased efforts to identify resilient coral...     

Capitalizing on an ecological process to aid coral reef ecosystem restoration: Can gastropod trophodynamics enhance coral survival?

Coral Reefs - Coral reefs in the Florida Keys have degraded in recent decades, prompting efforts to re-establish populations of staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, to restore structure and...     

Larval connectivity across temperature gradients and its potential effect on heat tolerance in coral populations

Coral reefs are increasingly exposed to elevated temperatures that can cause coral bleaching and high levels of mortality of corals and associated organisms. The temperature threshold for coral bleaching depends on the acclimation and adaptation of corals to the local maximum temperature regime. However, because of larval dispersal, coral populations can receive larvae from corals that are adapted to very different temperature regimes. We combine an offline particle tracking routine with output from a high‐resolution physical oceanographic model to investigate whether connectivity of coral larvae between reefs of different thermal regimes could alter the thermal stress threshold of corals. Our results suggest that larval transport between reefs of widely varying temperatures is likely in the Coral Triangle and that accounting for this connectivity may be important in bleaching predictions. This has important implications in conservation planning, because connectivity may allow some reefs to have an inherited heat tolerance that is higher or lower than predicted based on local conditions alone.     

Benthic habitat and fish assemblage structure from shallow to mesophotic depths in a storm-impacted marine protected area

Coral Reefs - Baseline ecological studies of mesophotic coral ecosystems are lacking in the equatorial Indo-West Pacific region where coral reefs are highly threatened by anthropogenic and...     

The Changing Health of Coral Reefs

Throughout their entire global range coral reefs are in decline. Coral bleaching, macroalgal overgrowth and coral diseases — responses signaling the declining health of coral reefs — have occurred with increasing frequency and intensity in recent decades. Decreased calcification may also be affecting coral reefs over longer time scales. Declines in coral reef health have been attributed to various natural and anthropogenic processes, but assignment of causality has proved problematic. Coral bleaching has been observed during extreme climate events such as El Niño; furthermore, there are indications that exposure to UV radiation, air, infectious microbes, and elevated temperature plays a role in the dramatic increase of coral bleaching since the mid-1970s. Macroalgal overgrowth is usually ascribed to eutrophi-cation and coral diseases to weakening of the coral host resistance by anthropogenic pollution. An issue precluding a strict anthropogenic cause of coral reef decline is that both overgrowth and coral diseases are known to occur, although less frequently, on reefs remote from human development. While its causes are still being unraveled, the overall decline in coral reef health sends an unambiguous signal that the coral reef system is losing its ability to withstand sudden or persistent environmental changes.     

Investigating the heat shock protein response involved in coral bleaching across scleractinian species in the central Red Sea

Coral Reefs - Coral bleaching represents the most serious threat to contemporary coral reefs. In response, focus is being laid on understanding the cellular processes involved in the response of...     

Morpho-molecular traits of Indo-Pacific and Caribbean Halofolliculina ciliate infections

Coral Reefs - Coral diseases are emerging as a major threat to coral reefs worldwide, and although many of them have been described, knowledge on their epizootiology is still limited. This is the...     

Is predation of juvenile crown-of-thorns seastars (Acanthaster cf. solaris) by peppermint shrimp (Lysmata vittata) dependent on age,size, or diet?

Coral Reefs - Outbreaks of crown-of-thorns seastars (CoTS) are one of the leading causes of coral decline on Indo-Pacific coral reefs. Predator removal has been proposed to be a possible mechanism...     

Boring sponges,an increasing threat for coral reefs affected by bleaching events

Coral bleaching is a stress response of corals induced by a variety of factors, but these events have become more frequent and intense in response to recent climate‐change‐related temperature anomalies. We tested the hypothesis that coral reefs affected by bleaching events are currently heavily infested by boring sponges, which are playing a significant role in the destruction of their physical structure. Seventeen reefs that cover the entire distributional range of corals along the Mexican Pacific coast were studied between 2005/2006, and later between 2009/2010. Most of these coral reefs were previously impacted by bleaching events, which resulted in coral mortalities. Sponge abundance and species richness was used as an indicator of bioerosion, and coral cover was used to describe the present condition of coral reefs. Coral reefs are currently highly invaded (46% of the samples examined) by a very high diversity of boring sponges (20 species); being the coral reef framework the substrate most invaded (56%) followed by the rubbles (45%), and the living colonies (36%). The results also indicated that boring sponges are promoting the dislodgment of live colonies and large fragments from the framework. In summary, the eastern coral reefs affected by bleaching phenomena, mainly provoked by El Niño, present a high diversity and abundance of boring sponges, which are weakening the union of the colony with the reef framework and promoting their dislodgment. These phenomena will probably become even more intense and severe, as temperatures are projected to continue to rise under the scenarios for future climate change, which could place many eastern coral reefs beyond their survival threshold.     

The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI): Global priorities for the conservation and management of coral reefs and the need for partnerships

Coral Reefs -  The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) is an international partnership, established to reverse the global degradation of coral reefs. In this paper, the ICRI process is...     

Reef location has a greater impact than coral bleaching severity on the microbiome of Pocillopora acuta

Coral Reefs - Coral reefs are increasingly threatened by heat stress events leading to coral bleaching. In 2016, a mass bleaching event affected large parts of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Whilst...     

Coral Lipidomes and Their Changes during Coral Bleaching

Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry - Numerous species of coral polyps form the structural basis of tropical coral reefs. Coral polyp tissues are rich in lipids. Currently, information on the...     

High-resolution habitat and bathymetry maps for 65,000 sq. km of Earth’s remotest coral reefs

Coral Reefs - With compelling evidence that half the world’s coral reefs have been lost over the last four decades, there is urgent motivation to understand where reefs are located and their...     

Canopy effects of octocoral communities on sedimentation: modern baffles on the shallow-water reefs of St. John,USVI

Coral Reefs - Recent shifts in the presence and abundance of species on shallow Caribbean coral reefs have left octocorals as the dominant functional group on some reefs, creating an ‘animal...     

The contribution of corals to reef structural complexity in Kāne‘ohe Bay

Coral Reefs - The structural complexity of coral reefs provides important ecosystem functions, such as wave attenuation for coastal protection, surfaces for coral growth, and habitat for other...