Comment on 'Rivers, runoff, and reefs' by McLaughlin et al. [Global Planetary Change 39 (2003) 191-199]

摘要

We do not, in this "comment", wish to draw attention away from the fact that increased and unchecked rates of sediment flux linked to changing land use practices or poor land management represent a potentially significant impact to some of the world's coral reefs and other coastal ecosystems. However, it is equally important that accurate attempts are made to delineate areas of coral reef occurrence on a global scale and that we clearly differentiate between areas of natural sediment accumulation (and reef occurrence) and those subject to increasing levels of anthropogenic-related run-off. Many coral communities occur in conditions that approach the perceived, but arguable, environmental "limits" for coral growth, but the spatial extent of these naturally occurring communities (including turbid-zone reefs) has not been quantified.