Global climate change and localized anthropogenic stressors are driving rapid declines in
coral reef health. In vitro experiments have been fundamental in providing insight into how …

Highlights•MCE habitat and diversity have been previously underestimated.•The shallow-
water reef community overlaps considerably with the upper mesophotic.•The lower …

Despite being one of the simplest metazoans, corals harbor some of the most highly diverse
and abundant microbial communities. Differentiating core, symbiotic bacteria from this …

The attenuation of light with increasing depth, along with reduced exposure to wave stress,
plays an important role in vertically structuring coral reef communities. Benthic …

The association between corals and photosynthetic dinoflagellates (Symbiodinium spp.) is
the key to the success of reef ecosystems in highly oligotrophic environments, but it is also …

Coral reefs are among the most biodiverse and productive ecosystems on the planet.
However, our understanding of these ecosystems and their inhabitants has primarily been …

Mesophotic coral reefs, currently defined as deep reefs between 30 and 150 m, are linked
physically and biologically to their shallow water counterparts, have the potential to be …

Coral reefs are the epitome of species diversity, yet the number of described scleractinian
coral species, the framework-builders of coral reefs, remains moderate by comparison. DNA …

Reef corals are mixotrophic organisms relying on symbiont-derived photoautotrophy and
water column heterotrophy. Coral endosymbionts (Family: Symbiodiniaceae), while typically …

Light quality is a crucial physical factor driving coral distribution along depth gradients.
Currently, a 30 m depth limit, based on SCUBA regulations, separates shallow and deep …