Influence of soft coral density and depth on benthic communities on Fiji's Rainbow Reef
8 affiliations
- 1Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge 1 , Cambridge, UK
- 2University Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge 3 , Cambridge, UK
- 3King's College, University of Cambridge 4 , Cambridge, UK
- 4Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge 2 , Cambridge, UK
- 5British Antarctic Survey 5 , Cambridge, UK
- 6Marine Biology Lab, Université Libre de Bruxelles 6 , Brussels, Belgium
- 7Viani Bay Dive School 7 , Vanua Levu, Fiji
- 8Reef Explorer Fiji 8 , Votua Village, Fiji
Abstract
Some soft corals have the potential to increase in prevalence on tropical coral reefs as the severity of anthropogenic climate change increases. While soft corals are therefore an increasingly important component of reef ecosystems, little is known about their ecological role on coral reefs and their influence on community dynamics and diversity. We used Bayesian network inference (BNI) to identify the associations among benthic taxa across sites with varying degrees of soft coral dominance on Fiji's Rainbow Reef, and then employed spatial point process analysis (SPPA) to reveal the ecological processes behind these associations. We found that depth was a dominant driver of community dynamics, and that white Nephtheidae soft corals were negatively associated with scleractinian corals and positively associated with algal proliferation—possibly owing to soft corals reducing grazing pressure. Our results show distinctions in reef benthos and ecological dynamics between scleractinian and soft coral-dominated components of the Rainbow Reef. We found that diversity levels were significantly lower on soft coral-dominated quadrats relative to scleractinian-dominated quadrats, potentially highlighting the reduction in benthic diversity when Nephtheidae soft corals dominate reef walls.
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BibTeX
@article{stephenson2026influence,
title = {{Influence of soft coral density and depth on benthic communities on Fiji's Rainbow Reef}},
author = {Nile P. Stephenson and Katie M. Delahooke and Charlotte G. Kenchington and Tasnuva Ming Khan and Lea Katz and Jone Waitaiti and Alice A. Ball and Victor Bonito and Emily G. Mitchell and Andrea Manica},
journal = {Royal Society Open Science},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1098/rsos.260513},
url = {https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/11/260513/484019/Influence-of-soft-coral-density-and-depth-on},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Influence of soft coral density and depth on benthic communities on Fiji's Rainbow Reef
AU - Nile P. Stephenson
AU - Katie M. Delahooke
AU - Charlotte G. Kenchington
AU - Tasnuva Ming Khan
AU - Lea Katz
AU - Jone Waitaiti
AU - Alice A. Ball
AU - Victor Bonito
AU - Emily G. Mitchell
AU - Andrea Manica
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
JO - Royal Society Open Science
DO - 10.1098/rsos.260513
UR - https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/11/260513/484019/Influence-of-soft-coral-density-and-depth-on
AB - Some soft corals have the potential to increase in prevalence on tropical coral reefs as the severity of anthropogenic climate change increases. While soft corals are therefore an increasingly important component of reef ecosystems, little is known about their ecological role on coral reefs and their influence on community dynamics and diversity. We used Bayesian network inference (BNI) to identify the associations among benthic taxa across sites with varying degrees of soft coral dominance on Fiji's Rainbow Reef, and then employed spatial point process analysis (SPPA) to reveal the ecological processes behind these associations. We found that depth was a dominant driver of community dynamics, and that white Nephtheidae soft corals were negatively associated with scleractinian corals and positively associated with algal proliferation—possibly owing to soft corals reducing grazing pressure. Our results show distinctions in reef benthos and ecological dynamics between scleractinian and soft coral-dominated components of the Rainbow Reef. We found that diversity levels were significantly lower on soft coral-dominated quadrats relative to scleractinian-dominated quadrats, potentially highlighting the reduction in benthic diversity when Nephtheidae soft corals dominate reef walls.
SN - 2054-5703
ER -