Abstract
The influence of microbes on coral reefs has been underappreciated, even though it is widely recognized that Bacteria, Archaea, and unicellular eukaryotes are vital components of all marine ecosystems. Several studies have applied modern microbial ecology methods to investigate the microbes living with reef organisms. These new avenues of research are changing our view of how coral reefs function. This chapter is intended to make these new findings accessible to those interested in interdisciplinary studies of coral and microbial ecology. A model of how microbes are structured on healthy corals is proposed, as is the hypothesis that disrupting this structure leads to coral disease and death.
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Rohwer, F., Kelley, S. (2004). Culture-Independent Analyses of Coral-Associated Microbes. In: Rosenberg, E., Loya, Y. (eds) Coral Health and Disease. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-06414-6_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-06414-6_14
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