ArticleNature communications2016
Overfishing and nutrient pollution interact with temperature to disrupt coral reefs down to microbial scales.
Article in Nature communications, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 180 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
180 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- What are the toxicity thresholds of chemical pollutants for tropical reef-building corals? A systematic review.Environmental evidence · 2023Pooled it
- A synthesis of recorded fine-scale threats to imperiled species in the United States.iScience · 2026Article
- Increasing nitrogen loading in the Gulf of Mexico undermines coral reef resilience.Science advances · 2026Article
- Reducing consumer pressure increases community dissimilarity leading to coral- or algal-dominance on a coral reef.Ecology · 2026Article
- Supervised satellite classification and field validation document endangered Acropora collapse, and identify surviving colonies in Belize.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Stress-Resistant Symbiodiniaceae and Diverse Bacterial Communities Promote Coral Persistence in Variable, Multi-Stressor Environments.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Decoding coral resistance to eutrophication through the association of hyper‑efficient denitrifiers as key microbial allies.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Success of restoration strategies in preventing extirpation of 2 critically endangered coral species.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2026Article
- Impacts of local anthropogenic stressors outpace those of climate on coral reef collapse in the northern South China Sea.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Persistent Legacy Effects of Marine Heatwaves on Coral Symbioses.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Symbiotic state affects microbiome recovery in a facultatively symbiotic cnidarian.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- A Global Dataset on Nutrient Removal Capacity by Marine Macroalgae.Scientific data · 2026Article
- Directing coral larval settlement in coral aquaculture for reef restoration.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Enhancing species discovery and description in algal turfs: A case study in the green alga Pseudoderbesia (Bryopsidales).Journal of phycology · 2026Article
- Article
- Nutrient-rich environments drive microbiome restructuring and mucus shedding in a coastal cnidarian.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- EvaluatingFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- The Coral Host Microbiome Modulates the Virulence of the Bacterial Pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Fish and coral communities shape elasmobranch reef use in southern Mozambique.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- You are what your fungus eats: diet shapes the microbial garden of a fungus-growing ant.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
120 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Losses of corals worldwide emphasize the need to understand what drives reef decline. Stressors such as overfishing and nutrient pollution may reduce resilience of coral reefs by increasing coral-algal competition and reducing coral recruitment, growth and survivorship. Such effects may themselves develop via several mechanisms, including disruption of coral microbiomes. Here we report the results of a 3-year field experiment simulating overfishing and nutrient pollution. These stressors increase turf and macroalgal cover, destabilizing microbiomes, elevating putative pathogen loads, increasing disease more than twofold and increasing mortality up to eightfold. Above-average temperatures exacerbate these effects, further disrupting microbiomes of unhealthy corals and concentrating 80% of mortality in the warmest seasons. Surprisingly, nutrients also increase bacterial opportunism and mortality in corals bitten by parrotfish, turning normal trophic interactions deadly for corals. Thus, overfishing and nutrient pollution impact reefs down to microbial scales, killing corals by sensitizing them to predation, above-average temperatures and bacterial opportunism.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.