Extreme and Marginal Coral Reefs and Communities

Marcelo O. Soares is a marine scientist based in Fortaleza, Brazil, whose research focuses on marginal and extreme reef systems, particularly along the Southwestern Atlantic. His work integrates benthic ecology, ecosystem functioning, and human impacts in turbid, sediment-influenced environments. He has led and contributed to multiple national and international projects examining reef responses to climate change, coastal development, and pollution. A strong advocate for interdisciplinary and applied science, Marcelo also works at the science–policy interface in Brazil. His expertise directly supports the book’s focus on extreme marginal reefs (and communities) as potential resilience hotspots and their role in future conservation strategies. Marcelo Soares has been an associate professor at the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) (Brazil) since 2010 and also served as a visiting professor at the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) (Bremen, Germany) during the book’s development.Tyler B. Smith is a marine ecologist based in the U.S. Virgin Islands, specializing in coral reef resilience, ecosystem dynamics, and climate change impacts. His research spans the Caribbean and other tropical regions, with emphasis on how disturbance and environmental variability shape shallow and mesophotic reef communities. He has contributed extensively to long-term monitoring and interdisciplinary initiatives aimed at forecasting reef futures. Tyler’s work bridges ecological theory and applied conservation, making him a key contributor to understanding how reefs persist under stress. His expertise is central to the book’s exploration of resilience in marginal and changing environments. Tyler Smith is a professor at the University of the Virgin Islands and directs the Coral Reef Resilience Laboratory based in St. Thomas, which conducts research worldwide.Emma Camp is a coral reef scientist based in Sydney, Australia, recognized for her pioneering research on corals living in extreme environments, including highly variable temperature, low pH, and low oxygen conditions. Her work investigates the physiological and ecological mechanisms that enable coral survival under stress, with important implications for climate change adaptation. She has conducted research across diverse regions, including the Great Barrier Reef, Coral Triangle and the Caribbean Sea, and is also active in coral restoration innovation. Her research provides critical insights into the potential of extreme reefs to function as climate refugia. As Team Leader of the Future Reefs Program within the Climate Change Cluster at the University of Technology Sydney, Prof. Camp leads interdisciplinary research focused on the physiology, ecology, and biogeochemistry of coral reef systems.Verena Schoepf is a coral reef scientist based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her research focuses on a central question in climate change biology: how do multiple, interacting climate change stressors shape the future of coral reefs? Specifically, her work examines how environmental heterogeneity across spatial and temporal scales modulates coral health and resilience under ocean warming, acidification, and deoxygenation. Her research approach combines controlled aquarium experiments that simulate future ocean conditions with field studies of extreme reef environments that function as natural laboratories, including the macrotidal Kimberley region of NW Australia or semi-enclosed bays in the Caribbean. By integrating eco-physiological and biogeochemical tools, her work provides insights into the traits and processes that underpin resistance to multifaceted climate stress and promote adaptive capacity in a rapidly changing ocean. She is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Oceans Institute, University of Western Australia.

• Chapter 1. Extreme and Marginal Coral Reefs and Communities: A Global Synthesis.- Chapter 2. The Ecology of Corals in Extreme and Marginal Settings.- Chapter 3. Diversity and Vulnerability of Reef Fishes in Marginal and Extreme Habitats.- Chapter 4. Microbial Communities in Extreme and Marginal Coral Reefs.- Chapter 5. Marginal Reefs of the Persian/Arabian Gulf: Patterns and Processes.- Chapter 6. Where the Reef Meets the Land: Intertidal and Back-Reef Coral Environments.- Chapter 7. Long-Term Coral Responses to High CO₂: Insights from Volcanic Vents and Semi-Enclosed Bays.- Chapter 8. Genomic Responses of Fishes to Ocean Acidification: Insights from Volcanic CO₂ Seeps.- Chapter 9. Turbid Reefs.- Chapter 10. Upwelling: Curse or Blessing for Coral Reefs?.- Chapter 11. Mangroves and Seagrasses as Habitat for Corals.- Chapter 12. Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems as Extreme and Marginal Habitats.- Chapter 13. Chillin’ Out: High-Latitude and Cold-Water Coral Communities Are Cool but No Climate Change Refugia.- Chapter 14. Trophic Ecology of Cnidarians and Sponges in Extreme and Marginal Tropical Reefs.- Chapter 15. Reef Geology and Carbonate Framework of Extreme and Marginal Reefs of the World.- Chapter 16. Carbonate Budgets of Marginal and Extreme Coral Reefs.- Chapter 17. Mechanisms of Coral Persistence in Extreme and Marginal Coral Environments and the Implications for Conservation.