The builder's legacy: persistent reef structure creates a window for coral recovery after adult loss
- 1Pristine Seas, National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C., USA
Abstract
Coral reef recovery depends on successful juvenile recruitment, yet which local factors govern early coral demography remains poorly resolved. Adult coral cover and reef structural complexity are widely hypothesized to regulate juvenile success, but their independent and interactive effects have not been mechanistically disentangled, nor has the relative role of living adult tissue versus persisting structural framework been clarified. Here, combining in situ coral size-structure surveys with high resolution photogrammetry across 405 reef segments spanning the main Hawaiian Islands, we quantify how adult cover and three-dimensional reef structure, measured as rugosity and fractal dimension, jointly shape juvenile coral densities. We reveal nonlinear relationships between juvenile density and adult cover, peaking at intermediate (~8%) coral cover, with fine-scale surface complexity and vertical relief exerting opposing influences across the cover gradient. Together, these reveal a structural legacy window in which reduced adult cover relaxes constraints on juvenile establishment while the three-dimensional habitat built by those adults persists. This decoupling of biological loss from structural loss creates a transient opportunity for population renewal, with intermediate-cover reefs supporting juveniles across the broadest range of structural configurations. More generally, our results show how the physical legacy of ecosystem engineers can continue to regulate population recovery after the organisms that create it have declined.
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BibTeX
@misc{asbury2026builders,
title = {{The builder's legacy: persistent reef structure creates a window for coral recovery after adult loss}},
author = {M. Asbury and C. Couch and T. Oliver and J. Reichert and J. S. Madin},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.11.751047},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.11.751047v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The builder's legacy: persistent reef structure creates a window for coral recovery after adult loss
AU - M. Asbury
AU - C. Couch
AU - T. Oliver
AU - J. Reichert
AU - J. S. Madin
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/11
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.11.751047
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.11.751047v1
AB - Coral reef recovery depends on successful juvenile recruitment, yet which local factors govern early coral demography remains poorly resolved. Adult coral cover and reef structural complexity are widely hypothesized to regulate juvenile success, but their independent and interactive effects have not been mechanistically disentangled, nor has the relative role of living adult tissue versus persisting structural framework been clarified. Here, combining in situ coral size-structure surveys with high resolution photogrammetry across 405 reef segments spanning the main Hawaiian Islands, we quantify how adult cover and three-dimensional reef structure, measured as rugosity and fractal dimension, jointly shape juvenile coral densities. We reveal nonlinear relationships between juvenile density and adult cover, peaking at intermediate (~8%) coral cover, with fine-scale surface complexity and vertical relief exerting opposing influences across the cover gradient. Together, these reveal a structural legacy window in which reduced adult cover relaxes constraints on juvenile establishment while the three-dimensional habitat built by those adults persists. This decoupling of biological loss from structural loss creates a transient opportunity for population renewal, with intermediate-cover reefs supporting juveniles across the broadest range of structural configurations. More generally, our results show how the physical legacy of ecosystem engineers can continue to regulate population recovery after the organisms that create it have declined.
ER -