{"id":13703,"date":"2025-03-10T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=13703"},"modified":"2025-02-27T05:53:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T05:53:16","slug":"parrotfish-coral-reefs-march-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/parrotfish-coral-reefs-march-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Parrotfish support healthy coral reefs, but they\u2019re not a cure-all, and sometimes cause harm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Rainbow and midnight parrotfish feed at Alacranes Reef in the Gulf of Mexico.\n Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip<\/span>, CC BY-ND<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip<\/a>, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico (UNAM)<\/a><\/em> and Ana Lilia Molina Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a>, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico (UNAM)<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

After two years of record-breaking ocean heat<\/a>, scientists are assessing the impacts of the world\u2019s fourth mass bleaching event<\/a> on coral reefs around the globe. At least 74 countries and territories<\/a> are confirmed to have experienced coral bleaching since the spring of 2023.<\/p>\n\n

As coastal development, pollution<\/a> and climate change<\/a> put increasing stress on the world\u2019s oceans, tropical reefs are losing reef-building corals at unprecedented rates<\/a>. These corals \u2013 species with rigid skeletons, such as elkhorn<\/a> and brain corals<\/a> \u2013 are the architects of these ecosystems, providing the foundations for coral reef communities. <\/p>\n\n

Coral reefs perform many important functions, such as buffering coastlines and providing habitat for one-fourth of all marine species<\/a>. In the U.S. alone, these ecological services are worth an estimated US$3.4 billion yearly.<\/p>\n\n

Over the past several decades, many studies have spotlighted the role of \u201cgrazers<\/a>\u201d \u2013 fish who feed on algae \u2013 in keeping coral reefs clean and healthy. Protecting parrotfish<\/a>, a family of some 90 species of large, colorful grazers, has become a tenet of reef conservation policies. <\/p>\n\n

We have analyzed indicators of reef health and resilience<\/a> and assessed the roles parrotfish play in controlling seaweed, promoting coral growth<\/a> and eroding reefs<\/a>. While it is clear that parrotfish are an important part of coral reef communities, management strategies focusing on them, in our view, have not fully proved effective<\/a>. In a review of recent science, we showed why conservation programs need to rethink the role parrotfish can play<\/a> as a conservation tool to improve reef health.<\/p>\n\n

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