title: Multiple Stressors and the Functioning of Coral Reefs.
abstract: Coral reefs provide critical services to coastal communities, and these services rely on ecosystem functions threatened by stressors. By summarizing the threats to the functioning of reefs from fishing, climate change, and decreasing water quality, we highlight that these stressors have multiple, conflicting effects on functionally similar groups of species and their interactions, and that the overall effects are often uncertain because of a lack of data or variability among taxa. The direct effects of stressors on links among functional groups, such as predator-prey interactions, are particularly uncertain. Using qualitative modeling, we demonstrate that this uncertainty of stressor impacts on functional groups (whether they are positive, negative, or neutral) can have significant effects on models of ecosystem stability, and reducing uncertainty is vital for understanding changes to reef functioning. This review also provides guidance for future models of reef functioning, which should include interactions among functional groups and the cumulative effect of stressors.
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, North Miami, Florida 33181; email: alastair.harborne@fiu.edu.|Marine Spatial Ecology Lab and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia; email: a.rogers2@uq.edu.au , y.bozec@uq.edu.au , p.j.mumby@uq.edu.au.
authors: Alastair R
authors: AR
authors: Harborne
authors: Marine Spatial Ecology Lab and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia; email: a.rogers2@uq.edu.au , y.bozec@uq.edu.au , p.j.mumby@uq.edu.au.
authors: Alice
authors: A
authors: Rogers
authors: Marine Spatial Ecology Lab and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia; email: a.rogers2@uq.edu.au , y.bozec@uq.edu.au , p.j.mumby@uq.edu.au.
authors: Yves-Marie
authors: YM
authors: Bozec
authors: Marine Spatial Ecology Lab and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia; email: a.rogers2@uq.edu.au , y.bozec@uq.edu.au , p.j.mumby@uq.edu.au.
authors: Peter J
authors: PJ
authors: Mumby
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa; D057231:Climate Change; D057894:Coral Reefs; D017753:Ecosystem; D005399:Fishes
keywords: climate change; ecological uncertainty; ecosystem functioning; ecosystem service; fishing; water quality