Marine Biology Commons^™

The Individual And Interactive Effects Of Nitrogen And Phosphorus Enrichment On Coral Reefs, Andrew A. Shantz

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human domination of global nutrient cycles is profoundly altering our planet. Yet on coral reefs, the effects of changing nutrient regimes have likely been over-simplified. This dissertation investigates the complexity of animal-nutrient interactions at the organismal level and explores how the outcomes of these interactions cascade through levels of biological organization. To do so, I examined the effects of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) on corals and macroalgae, and how these effects in turn influenced reef communities and entire ecosystems. I show that P consistently increases coral growth rates while N has variable, often negative, effects on coral growth. The …