The health status and future of tropical coral reefs, as tourist destinations, are regularly subjected to media coverage. Many documentaries recognize the natural beauty and biological richness of the Australian Great Barrier Reef and French Polynesian lagoons, but point to the equally significant risk that would result from current global warming and human-made hazards. The future of coral reefs is usually a matter of death foretold, real or purely imaginary. In this context, it has become necessary to differentiate between what is falling within reality of scientific facts or fantasy. To this end, the present general review, in the expert translation of Charlotte Fontan aims at: (1) defining the conditions and life requirements of reefbuilding corals; (2) the history of corals along with that of a number of associated, skeletal organisms involved in reef building since the very beginning, i.e. the last 540 million years, including the ups and downs they have experienced; (3) giving special reference to the development patterns of recent and modern reefs; (4) projecting corals and reefs into a still unknown future. Understanding how corals and reefs have originated, how they have been able to face the major biological crises which have punctuated the Earths history, how they have survived is a prerequisite to better gain a significant picture of their future.
INTRODUCTION: THE REEF PHENOMENON.- INTO THE INTIMACY OF CORALS,
BUILDERS OF THE SEA.- 1 TAXONOMIC AFFILIATION.- 1.1 Systematic classification
of cnidarians.- 1.2 Scleractinians.- 2 MORPHOLOGY AND ANATOMY.- 2.1 Polyp
anatomy.- 2.2 Reproduction.- 2.2.1 Sexual reproduction.- 2.2.2 Asexual
reproduction.- 2.3 Anatomy of calcareous skeletons.- 2.4 Coral
colonies.- 2.4.1 Corallite arrangement.- 2.4.2 Colony morphology.- 3
SYMBIOSIS.- 4 BIOMINERALIZATION.- 4.1 Calicoderm and biomineralization.- 4.2
Skeletons and biomineralization.- 4.3 Interface between calicoderm and
skeleton.- 4.4 Principles of calcification.- 5 NUTRITION.- 5.1 Prey
capture.- 5.2 Food.- 5.3 Autotrophy.- THE MODERN TIMES.- 1 BIOZONATION.- 2
REEF MORPHOTYPES.- 2.1 Fringing reefs.- 2.2 Barrier reefs.- 2.3
Atolls.- 2.4 Bank reefs.- 2.5 High carbonate islands.- 3
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.- 3.1 Ecological control.- 3.2 Tectonic
control.- 3.3 Eustatic control.- 3.4 Topographic control.- 4 REEF
GROWTH.- 4.1 Vertical growth strategies.- 4.1.1 Controlling factors.- 4.1.2
Give-up growth.- 4.1.3 Keep-up growth.- 4.1.4 Catch-up mode.- 4.2 Lateral
growth.- 5 MORPHO-SEDIMENTARY PROCESSES.- 5.1 Bioconstruction.- 5.2
Erosion.- 5.3 Bioaccumulation.- 5.4 Cementation.- 6 INTERNAL STRUCTURE.- 6.1
Nature and distribution of facies.- 6.1.1 Framework facies.- 6.1.2 Detrital
facies.- 6.1.3 Facies distribution and hydrodynamics.- 6.2 The different
structural models.- 7 A BRIEF HISTORY OF REEF DEVELOPMENT.- 7.1 The climatic
context.- 7.2 History of reef development since the last deglaciation.- 7.3
Reef history throughout the Pleistocene.-8 RECORD OF ENVIRONMENTAL
CHANGES.- 8.1 Record at the coral colony scale.- 8.1.1 Temperature.- 8.1.2
Salinometry.- 8.1.3 Rainfall.- 8.1.4 pH measurement.- 8.1.5
Photometry.- 8.1.6 Current measurement.- 8.2 Record at the scale of a reef
edifice.- 8.2.1 Reef flats and micro-atolls.- 8.2.2 Arrangement of coral
communities.- 8.2.3 Arrangement of reef edifices.- THE LONG MARCH OF
CORALS.- 1 THE TIME OF THE ORIGINS.- 1.1 Early Earth and the first traces of
life.- 1.2 Evolution of the atmosphere.- 1.3 Geochemical model of the early
ocean.- 1.4 Emergence of biomineralization.- 1.5 The early calcifying
organisms and cnidarians.- 1.6 The earliest corals.- 1.7 The appearance of
scleractinian corals.- 2 THE TIME OF DIVERSIFICATION.- 2.1 Coral-algae
symbiosis.- 2.1.1 Acquiring photosymbiosis.- 2.1.2 Evidence of
photosymbiosis.- 2.1.3 Symbiosis and coloniality.- 2.2 A brief history of
coral and reef building.- 2.2.1 Paleozoic times.- 2.2.2 Mesozoic
times.- 2.2.3 Cenozoic times.- THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF THE REEF
PHENOMENON.- 1 CAUSES.- 1.1 Causal relationships.- 1.2 Gas
emissions and volcanic products.- 1.3 Methane emissions.- 1.4 Thermogenic
gases.- 1.5 The fall of celestial bodies.- 1.6 Behaviour of organisms facing
environmental disturbances.- 1.7 Disturbances induced by CO2 and ocean
acidification.- 1.8 Thermal shocks.- 1.9 Disturbances induced by ocean
deoxygenation.- 2 THE MAIN BIOLOGICAL CRISES.- 2.1 The Cambrian crises.- 2.2
The major crisis of the Ordovician end.- 2.3 The minor crises of the
Silurian.- 2.4 The successive crises of the Devonian.- 2.5 The Permian
crises.- 2.6 The Triassic crises.- 2.7 The lower Jurassic crisis.- 2.8 The
JurassicCretaceous transition (JK).- 2.9 The CretaceousPaleogene
crisis.- 2.10 The PaleoceneEocene crisis.- 2.11 The EoceneOligocene
transition.- 2.12 The Oligocene end to the Plio-Quaternary.- 3 THE RESPONSE
OF CORALS AND REEFS TO CRISES: FROM EXTINCTION TO RECOVERY.- 3.1 At the
Ordovician end.- 3.2 During the Silurian.- 3.3 During the Devonian.- 3.4 At
the Permian.- 3.5 At the PermianTriassic boundary.- 3.6 From the middle to
the end of the Triassic.- 3.7 During the Jurassic.- 3.8 From the upper
Jurassic to the lower Cretaceous.- 3.9 At the CretaceousPaleogene (KPg)
transition.- 3.10 From the Paleocene to the Eocene.- 3.11 From the Oligocene
to the Miocene.- 3.12 During the Plio-Quaternary.- 4 CONCLUSIONS.- CORAL
REEFS IN THE FACE OF THEIR FATE.- 1 DISRUPTIVE AGENTS IN ACTION.- 1.1 Carbon
dioxide and rising surface water temperatures.- 1.2 Carbon dioxide and its
effects on the carbonate cycle.- 1.3 Carbon dioxide and ocean acidification.-
1.4 The other disruptive agents.- 2 THE RESPONSE OF CORALS AND CORAL
REEFS.- 2.1 Temperature rise of surface waters.- 2.2 To acidification.- 2.3
To other disruptive agents.- 3 THE EVOLUTION OF CORAL ISLETS.- 3.1 The modes
of low-lying island formation.- 3.2 Future evolution of low-lying islands:
maintenance, reduction, or destruction?.- CONCLUSIONS.- BIBLIOGRAPHY.- INDICE.
Bertrand Martin-Garin is an associate professor at Aix-Marseille université. His skills are mainly guided by cnidarians corals and jellyfish; coral reefs in all their states! Paleontologist and marine biologist, the study of its organisms takes him on a spatio-temporal journey through the oceans and the seas of the Jurassic, the Miocene and the recent with themes related to climate and biodiversity, ecotoxicology, or mathematical concepts. Lucien F. Montaggioni is a professor emeritus at Aix-Marseille université. His skills refer to sedimentology and palaeoecology of coral reefs and shallow-water carbonate platforms, from the Oligo-Miocene to Recent, in relation to palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. His research has focused on systems from islands in the Western Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Australia, Myanmar, New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
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