Shipwrecks Wrecking Coral Reefs? A Case Study At Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge
Wednesday, August 5, 2009 - 23:28
in Biology & Nature
For the first time, researchers have definitively shown that shipwrecks and other man-made structures increase the potential for large invasions of unwanted species into coral reefs, even comparatively pristine ones. These unwanted species can completely overtake a reef and eliminate native corals, dramatically decreasing the diversity of marine organisms on the reef. Coral reefs can undergo fast changes in their dominant life forms, a phenomenon referred to as phase shift.