2025/12/27 by Bryan Wilson, Peter J. Edmunds · 1 voice
Environmental Science · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies #Botany and Geology in Latin America and Caribbean #Economic and Technological Innovation
paper · doi:10.1111/cobi.70200
openalex publication_date 2025/12/27 · openalex created_date 2025/12/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
Many reef-building tropical corals are becoming rare. We considered the meaning of rarity in corals and highlighted taxa that have reached low abundances in the last few decades. The difficulties of quantifying rarity in the marine environment arise from the sheer scale and 3-dimensional nature of the biome and the inherent challenges therein of ecological surveys with scuba. To meet the demands of coral conservation biology in the 21st century, we suggest that contemporary studies of coral communities will require enhanced capacity to identify species and a species-specific focus on corals occurring at low abundances, which traditional ecological approaches to quantifying populations of benthic marine organisms have a limited capacity to address. Now is the time to revise scientific approaches to respond to the challenges posed by the need to understand and protect rare tropical corals.