Evaluating life‐history strategies of reef corals from species traits

2012/09/03 by Emily S. Darling, Lorenzo Álvarez‐Filip, Thomas A. Oliver +2 · 1 voice · 6 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies #Marine and coastal plant biology #Marine and fisheries research

paper · doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01861.x

openalex publication_date 2012/09/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Classifying the biological traits of organisms can test conceptual frameworks of life-history strategies and allow for predictions of how different species may respond to environmental disturbances. We apply a trait-based classification approach to a complex and threatened group of species, scleractinian corals. Using hierarchical clustering and random forests analyses, we identify up to four life-history strategies that appear globally consistent across 143 species of reef corals: competitive, weedy, stress-tolerant and generalist taxa, which are primarily separated by colony morphology, growth rate and reproductive mode. Documented shifts towards stress-tolerant, generalist and weedy species in coral reef communities are consistent with the expected responses of these life-history strategies. Our quantitative trait-based approach to classifying life-history strategies is objective, applicable to any taxa and a powerful tool that can be used to evaluate theories of community ecology and predict the impact of environmental and anthropogenic stressors on species assemblages.

Citations

• Patterns of Life-History Diversification in North American Fishes: implications for Population Regulation
• A distance‐based framework for measuring functional diversity from multiple traits
• Anecdotes and the shifting baseline syndrome of fisheries
• Evidence for the Existence of Three Primary Strategies in Plants and Its Relevance to Ecological and Evolutionary Theory
• The Evolution of Life History Traits: A Critique of the Theory and a Review of the Data
• Preferential survivorship of brooding corals in a regional extinction

Cited by

• Variability in oceanographic barriers to coral larval dispersal: Do currents shape biodiversity?
• What are the toxicity thresholds of chemical pollutants for tropical reef-building corals? A systematic review
• Combining agent-based, trait-based and demographic approaches to model coral-community dynamics
• Neglected Biodiversity of Fish Assemblages Associated With Antipatharia (Black Corals) on Tropical Shallow Reef Ecosystems
• Ecology, Biology and Genetics ofMilleporaHydrocorals on Coral Reefs
• Patterns of bleaching and mortality following widespread warming events in 2014 and 2015 at the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, Hawai‘i

Discussions

• Grime's triangle for corals: doi.org/10.1111/j.14... [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]