Seaweed allelopathy degrades the resilience and function of coral reefs

Coral reefs are in dramatic global decline due to a host of local- and global-scale anthropogenic disturbances that suppress corals and enhance seaweeds. This decline is exacerbated, and recovery made less likely, due to over-fishing of herbivores that normally limit seaweed effects on corals. Seaweeds were known to suppress coral reproduction and recruitment, but in a recent study, we demonstrated that numerous seaweeds also directly poison corals via lipid-soluble allelochemicals transferred during contact. These allelopathic interactions may limit reef recovery once seaweeds proliferate and commonly contact remaining corals. Other recent studies suggest that seaweeds may also damage corals by enhancing coral disease or via release of water-soluble compounds that stimulate damaging microbes. For some of these mechanisms, cause versus effect is not yet clear. Here, we suggest that these different mechanisms are not mutually exclusive, may interact in context-dependent ways, but need to be assessed under ecologically realistic field conditions where flow may limit impacts of some mechanisms.