Corals and Reefs

RECORD OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES.- 8.1 Record at the coral colony scale.- 8.1.1 Temperature.- 8.1.2  Salinometry.- 8.1.3 Rainfall.- 8.1.4 pH measurement.- 8.1.5 Photometry.- 8.1.6 Current measurement.- 8.2 Record at the scale of a reef edifice.- 8.2.1 Reef flats and micro-atolls.- 8.2.2  Arrangement of coral communities.- 8.2.3 Arrangement of reef edifices.- THE LONG MARCH OF CORALS.- 1 THE TIME OF THE ORIGINS.- 1.1 Early Earth and the first traces of life.- 1.2 Evolution of the atmosphere.- 1.3 Geochemical model of the early ocean.- 1.4 Emergence of biomineralization.- 1.5 The early calcifying organisms and cnidarians.- 1.6 The earliest corals.- 1.7 The appearance of scleractinian corals.- 2 THE TIME OF DIVERSIFICATION.- 2.1 Coral-algae symbiosis.- 2.1.1  Acquiring photosymbiosis.- 2.1.2 Evidence of photosymbiosis.- 2.1.3 Symbiosis and coloniality.- 2.2 A brief history of coral and reef building.- 2.2.1 Paleozoic times.- 2.2.2  Mesozoic times.- 2.2.3 Cenozoic times.- THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF THE REEF PHENOMENON.- 1          CAUSES.- 1.1 Causal relationships.- 1.2  Gas emissions and volcanic products.- 1.3 Methane emissions.- 1.4 Thermogenic gases.- 1.5 The fall of celestial bodies.- 1.6 Behaviour of organisms facing environmental disturbances.- 1.7 Disturbances induced by CO2 and ocean acidification.- 1.8 Thermal shocks.- 1.9 Disturbances induced by ocean deoxygenation.- 2  THE MAIN BIOLOGICAL CRISES.- 2.1 The Cambrian crises.- 2.2 The major crisis of the Ordovician end.- 2.3 The minor crises of the Silurian.- 2.4 The successive crises of the Devonian.- 2.5 The Permian crises.- 2.6 The Triassic crises.- 2.7 The lower Jurassic crisis.- 2.8 The Jurassic-Cretaceous transition (J-K).- 2.9 The Cretaceous-Paleogene crisis.- 2.10 The Paleocene-Eocene crisis.- 2.11 The Eocene-Oligocene transition.- 2.12 The Oligocene end to the Plio-Quaternary.- 3 THE RESPONSE OF CORALS AND REEFS TO CRISES: FROM EXTINCTION TO RECOVERY.- 3.1 At the Ordovician end.- 3.2 During the Silurian.- 3.3 During the Devonian.- 3.4  At the Permian.- 3.5 At the Permian-Triassic boundary.- 3.6 From the middle to the end of the Triassic.- 3.7 During the Jurassic.- 3.8 From the upper Jurassic to the lower Cretaceous.- 3.9 At the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) transition.- 3.10 From the Paleocene to the Eocene.- 3.11 From the Oligocene to the Miocene.- 3.12 During the Plio-Quaternary.- 4   CONCLUSIONS.- CORAL REEFS IN THE FACE OF THEIR FATE.- 1 DISRUPTIVE AGENTS IN ACTION.- 1.1 Carbon dioxide and rising surface water temperatures.- 1.2 Carbon dioxide and its effects on the carbonate cycle.- 1.3 Carbon dioxide and ocean acidification.- 1.4 The other disruptive agents.- 2 THE RESPONSE OF CORALS AND CORAL REEFS.- 2.1 Temperature rise of surface waters.- 2.2 To acidification.- 2.3 To other disruptive agents.- 3 THE EVOLUTION OF CORAL ISLETS.- 3.1 The modes of low-lying island formation.- 3.2 Future evolution of low-lying islands: maintenance, reduction, or destruction?.- CONCLUSIONS.- BIBLIOGRAPHY.- INDICE.