Lorenzo AlvarezFilip

Coral reef ecologist

[Lorenzo AlvarezFilip @LAlvarezFilip]

🪸🐟Our new paper is out in @ConLetters this week. In it, we review and discuss in a broader context one of the most fundamental paradigms in reef management and conservation—the parrotfish paradigm: https://t.co/mKd7d8oDU4
with @ANAMLHZ

[Lorenzo AlvarezFilip @LAlvarezFilip]

@ernesto_mendez @RoyalMX @Claudiashein El problema es que los arrecifes ya están muy afectados; cualquier megaproyecto contribuirá a su degradación. ... https://t.co/Soev0moEvt

[Lorenzo AlvarezFilip @LAlvarezFilip]

Massive marine heatwave caused Caribbean coral reefs to collapse much faster than predicted – new research https://t.co/2R11qLkqEW via @ConversationUK

[Francisco Medellín @FRAME5_7]

🚨 Paper Alert!

In 2023, Mexican coral reefs experienced an unprecedented bleaching event

But bleaching wasn’t the biggest issue

Our study in Proceedings B @RSocPublishing shows a marine heatwave caused massive coral mortality and pushed reefs from production to net erosion
🧵

[Lorenzo AlvarezFilip @LAlvarezFilip]

Please also check out our blog post on our findings here: https://t.co/bJ7GrXpORR! 🌊

[Lorenzo AlvarezFilip @LAlvarezFilip]

👶🪸 Can Caribbean corals recover naturally after the devastating effects of SCTLD? - Our new study in
@CommsEarth reveals that corals in their early life stages—either survived the outbreak or recruited afterwards—offering a positive sign of resilience at regional scales

[Communications Earth & Environment @CommsEarth]

Juveniles reveal natural recovery potential of Caribbean coral species after a widespread disease die-off https://t.co/Gmrf560rAj

[Lorenzo AlvarezFilip @LAlvarezFilip]

While these signs of recruitment are encouraging, they are not uniformly distributed among all species. Notably, some of the most severely affected corals—such as Dendrogyra cylindrus (pillar coral) and Meandrina meandrites (maze coral)—are showing limited signs of recovery.

[LNCBioCC @LNCBioCC]

Estudio realizado por integrantes de nuestro Laboratorio.

[The Conversation U.S. @ConversationUS]

Parrotfish support healthy coral reefs, but they’re not a cure-all, and sometimes cause harm https://t.co/YjOGQhwZTM

[Lorenzo AlvarezFilip @LAlvarezFilip]

Some arguments to consider moving to Bluesky...

https://t.co/ZtAgocwvsY

[Bob Berwyn @bberwyn]

The world’s 10 deadliest climate disasters of the past two decades killed more than half a million people, and a new study by @WWAttribution found global warming fingerprints on all of them, from cyclones and hurricanes, to heatwaves, droughts and floods. https://t.co/vZiq8PmUh8

[Dr. Ines Lange @InesLange9]

🎉 NEW PAPER 🤩

Short and sweet story of how seabird nutrients can increase calcification of several coral genera and thereby boost reef carbonate budgets 🐦↗️🪸

Always fun to work with @cbenkwitt

https://t.co/LF03CHA6ul

@Marine_Science @ExeterMarine @UniofExeterNews

[Trends in Ecology & Evolution @Trends_Ecol_Evo]

Online now: Peer review bullying threatens diversity, equity, and inclusion https://t.co/bcOn7G2e9V

[Bill Precht @BillPrecht]

Really excited to see this paper published. This was one of Victor’s dissertation chapters. Great job. Proud to be part of this amazing team

Spatial variability of sedimentary assemblages reflects variations in bioerosion pressure of adjacent coral reefs https://t.co/hoAmYAkIC6

[The Coral Reef Research Hub @reef_research]

NEW CORAL REEF RESEARCH: Incorporating parrotfish bioerosion into the herbivory paradigm of coral reef resilience (OPEN ACCESS)

https://t.co/B79wxTO22z

Promoting resilience is highly relevant to preserving biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. For coral reefs, parrotfish protection emerged as a mainstream action for reversing the degradation experienced by these systems. The rationale is that restoring their populations will increase grazing activity and reinforce control of fast-growing macroalgae, facilitating coral cover recovery. A lack of a link between parrotfish trends and macroalgae and coral cover trends at a large scale has, however, often been the case. Suggesting more complex underlying dynamics that should be reexamined. In this review, we discuss how lumping parrotfish species as if they were functionally redundant may obscure trends. And how a lack of appreciation of other functions around the parrotfish paradigm, specifically bioerosion, may have unforeseen and potentially adverse effects on degraded reefs. We show that bioerosion responded more directly and quickly to spatial and temporal changes in parrotfish assemblages than macroalgae consumption, arguably due to the varying vulnerability among Caribbean parrotfishes to fisheries and habitat loss. For highly degraded reefs, positive changes in parrotfish populations could hence compromise the remaining coral skeleton structures and the reef framework, further accentuating reef degradation, where increases in macroalgae consumption could not necessarily compensate for higher rates of bioerosion.

#coralreefs #parrotfish #coralreefresearch #reefresilience #bioerosion #coralreefecology #marinescience #marineecology #marinebiology

[Lorenzo AlvarezFilip @LAlvarezFilip]

Overall, we show how lumping parrotfish species as if they were functionally redundant may obscure trends. And how a lack of appreciation of other functions, specifically bioerosion, may have unforeseen and potentially adverse effects on degraded reefs.

[Lorenzo AlvarezFilip @LAlvarezFilip]

🪸🐟Our new paper is out in @ConLetters this week. In it, we review and discuss in a broader context one of the most fundamental paradigms in reef management and conservation—the parrotfish paradigm: https://t.co/mKd7d8oDU4
with @ANAMLHZ

[Lorenzo AlvarezFilip @LAlvarezFilip]

This paradigm has led to management regulations worldwide. Yet, there has often been a lack of a link between parrotfish recovery and coral cover increase. This suggests complex dynamics that led us to re-examine this paradigm's theoretical and methodological aspects.

[Smithsonian Panama @stri_panama]

❗ Job Opportunity
🐠 Marine Scientist

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute seeks a marine scientist for the position Natural Science, with an interest in tropical research

For more information visit: https://t.co/RigoR6d35q