Ecology and Paleoecology of Atlantic and Caribbean Coral Reefs

Dear Colleagues,

Atlantic and Caribbean coral reefs have a fascinating past, a rapidly changing present, and an uncertain future. Extending from the Abrolhos Bank off the eastern region of Brazil, north to Bermuda, coral reefs are found in suitable habitats across 50° of subtropical and tropical latitudes. Originally part of the circumtropical expanse of warm, carbonate provinces, connections to the Indo-Pacific via the Tethyan Seaway were closed in the Miocene. Later, connections to the Eastern Pacific were lost with the closure of the Panama Seaway in the Plio-Pleistocene. Isolation and environmental stresses have resulted in a much diminished diversity of many reef taxa, compared with the western Pacific, though some taxa have diversified in their more isolated regions. This Special Issue provides a platform to explore the unique characteristics of Atlantic Province reefs, including reef-building taxa, the diverse and fascinating invertebrate biota, and inter-relationships between reef habitats and taxa that feed the human inhabitants throughout the region. Whether exploring genetic, ecological or environmental research on modern taxa, or modeled future, current distributions, or evolution or extinctions of fossil predecessors, the goal is to compile a set of research papers that celebrates the unique characteristics of coral reefs of the Atlantic realm.

Prof. Dr. Pamela Hallock
Guest Editor

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• biodiversity
• biogeography
• coral-reef ecosystem
• reef-species distributions
• reef community structure
• resilient species
• endemic species
• vulnerable species
• climate change
• Neogene reefs
• Miocene reefs
• Pliocene reefs
• Pleistocene reefs
• climate change to reef ecosystem services

Title: Taxonomic and functional diversity, assemblage structure, and biological trait analysis of cryptofaunal nematode assemblages along the coral reef system Jardines de La Reina, Caribbean Sea
Author: Armenteros
Highlights: First study describing cryptofaunal nematode assemblages on hard reef substrates Assemblages exhibit moderate γ-diversity, α-diversity similar along reef, while β-diversity varied related to small-scale substrate heterogeneity Assemblage structure was indistinct along the reef and driven by substrate heterogeneity and turbulent flows Functional structure showed a set of traits reflecting adaptation of nematodes to hydrodynamic regime