ArticleNature microbiology2016
Global microbialization of coral reefs.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 114 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
114 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Increasing nitrogen loading in the Gulf of Mexico undermines coral reef resilience.Science advances · 2026Article
- The planktonic microbiome of the Great Barrier Reef.Nature · 2026Article
- Nonlinear response mechanisms of microbial communities to coral reef biogeomorphy in the South China Sea.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Bacteriophage replication strategies are associated with organic matter energy content on coral reefs.mSystems · 2026Article
- Stress-Resistant Symbiodiniaceae and Diverse Bacterial Communities Promote Coral Persistence in Variable, Multi-Stressor Environments.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- The epidermal ecotone: a proposed model system for marine viral ecology at the animal-environmental interface.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Review
- Microbial dynamics in coral reef waters: Diel cycles in contrasting seasons.Science advances · 2026Article
- Temperate and filamentous bacteriophages as reservoirs of bacterial virulence in stony coral tissue loss disease.Coral reefs (Online) · 2026Article
- Article
- Impacts of Nearby Algae on Recruitment Success and Early Microbiome Development of the Coral Acropora cytherea.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- High microbial diversity, functional redundancy, and prophage enrichment support the success of the yellow pencil coral,mSystems · 2025Article
- Central carbon metabolism switching in lytic versus temperate coral reef viral communities.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- A control theory framework and in situ experimental platform for informing restoration of coral reefs.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Review
- Mitigating Algal Competition with Fouling-Prevention Coatings for Coral Restoration and Reef Engineering.ACS sustainable chemistry & engineering · 2025Article
- Article
- A Succession of Microbiome Communities in the Early Establishing Process of an Epilithic Algal Matrix in a Fringing Reef.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Metagenomic Characterization of Microbiome Taxa Associated with Coral Reef Communities in North Area of Tabuk Region, Saudia Arabia.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Microbial Community Metabolism of Coral Reef Exometabolomes Broadens the Chemodiversity of Labile Dissolved Organic Matter.Environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- An abundant mutualist can protect corals from multiple stressors.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
54 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
19 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Microbialization refers to the observed shift in ecosystem trophic structure towards higher microbial biomass and energy use. On coral reefs, the proximal causes of microbialization are overfishing and eutrophication, both of which facilitate enhanced growth of fleshy algae, conferring a competitive advantage over calcifying corals and coralline algae. The proposed mechanism for this competitive advantage is the DDAM positive feedback loop (dissolved organic carbon (DOC), disease, algae, microorganism), where DOC released by ungrazed fleshy algae supports copiotrophic, potentially pathogenic bacterial communities, ultimately harming corals and maintaining algal competitive dominance. Using an unprecedented data set of >400 samples from 60 coral reef sites, we show that the central DDAM predictions are consistent across three ocean basins. Reef algal cover is positively correlated with lower concentrations of DOC and higher microbial abundances. On turf and fleshy macroalgal-rich reefs, higher relative abundances of copiotrophic microbial taxa were identified. These microbial communities shift their metabolic potential for carbohydrate degradation from the more energy efficient Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway on coral-dominated reefs to the less efficient Entner-Doudoroff and pentose phosphate pathways on algal-dominated reefs. This 'yield-to-power' switch by microorganism directly threatens reefs via increased hypoxia and greater CO2 release from the microbial respiration of DOC.
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Registered trials
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.