Department of Biology, California State University, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA, 91330-8303, USA.
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2023 Dec;98(6):1862-1886. doi: 10.1111/brv.12987. Epub 2023 Jun 20.
Coral recruitment describes the addition of new individuals to populations, and it is one of the most fundamental demographic processes contributing to population size. As many coral reefs around the world have experienced large declines in coral cover and abundance, there has been great interest in understanding the factors causing coral recruitment to vary and the conditions under which it can support community resilience. While progress in these areas is being facilitated by technological and scientific advances, one of the best tools to quantify recruitment remains the humble settlement tile, variants of which have been in use for over a century. Here I review the biology and ecology of coral recruits and the recruitment process, largely as resolved through the use of settlement tiles, by: (i) defining how the terms 'recruit' and 'recruitment' have been used, and explaining why loose terminology has impeded scientific advancement; (ii) describing how coral recruitment is measured and why settlement tiles have value for this purpose; (iii) summarizing previous efforts to review quantitative analyses of coral recruitment; (iv) describing advances from hypothesis-driven studies in determining how refuges, seawater flow, and grazers can modulate coral recruitment; (v) reviewing the biology of small corals (i.e. recruits) to understand better how they respond to environmental conditions; and (vi) updating a quantitative compilation of coral recruitment studies extending from 1974 to present, thus revealing long-term global declines in density of recruits, juxtaposed with apparent resilience to coral bleaching. Finally, I review future directions in the study of coral recruitment, and highlight the need to expand studies to deliver taxonomic resolution, and explain why time series of settlement tile deployments are likely to remain pivotal in quantifying coral recruitment.
珊瑚补充描述了新个体的加入，是导致种群规模的最基本的人口过程之一。由于世界上许多珊瑚礁的珊瑚覆盖率和丰度都大幅下降，人们对了解导致珊瑚补充变化的因素以及支持群落恢复力的条件产生了极大的兴趣。虽然技术和科学的进步促进了这些领域的进展，但量化补充的最佳工具之一仍然是简陋的定居瓦片，其变体已经使用了一个多世纪。在这里，我通过以下方式回顾了珊瑚补充的生物学和生态学以及补充过程，主要是通过使用定居瓦片来解决：（i）定义了“补充”和“补充过程”的术语的使用方式，并解释了为什么松散的术语阻碍了科学的进步；（ii）描述了珊瑚补充是如何测量的，以及为什么定居瓦片在这方面具有价值；（iii）总结了以前评估珊瑚补充的定量分析的努力；（iv）描述了从假设驱动的研究中得出的进展，以确定避难所、海水流动和食草动物如何调节珊瑚补充；（v）回顾小珊瑚（即补充者）的生物学，以更好地了解它们对环境条件的反应；（vi）更新了从 1974 年至今的珊瑚补充研究的定量汇编，从而揭示了长期以来全球补充者密度的下降，同时珊瑚白化似乎具有恢复力。最后，我回顾了珊瑚补充研究的未来方向，并强调需要扩大研究范围以提供分类学分辨率，并解释为什么定居瓦片的时间序列部署可能仍然是量化珊瑚补充的关键。
