Dynamics Lab
Publications
Highlighted recent publications from the
Marine Ecosystem Dynamics Laboratory
Highlights
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Mesophotic communities are not immune from coral bleaching, are in danger, and are degrading in the Red Sea.
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Heat accumulation at mesophotic depths is almost twofold higher than on adjacent shallow reefs.
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Bleaching events affect the deep-specialist coral populations, with ~50% coral community mortality at 60 m depth.
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The deeper benthic community lost framework builders may result in lower complexity, fewer niches, and loss of biodiversity.
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Experimental evidence suggests that deep-specialist corals are less tolerant of heat stress and bleach more readily.
Mesophotic Ecosystems: The Link between Shallow and Deep-Sea Habitats
Highlights
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Mesophotic ecosystems (MEs) are characterized by the presence of light-dependent organisms, found at depths ranging from ~30 to 150 m in temperate, subtropical and tropical regions.
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Mesophotic communities occasionally create massive reef structures with diverse but characteristic morphologies, which serve as the framework builders of those ecosystems.
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MEs are physically linked with shallow and deep-sea habitats, and while taxa from both environments share this space, unique and endemic biodiversity is also found.
Highlights
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Light relationships alone are sufficient to capture major ecological features across coral reef depth gradients.
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Predicting the depths of reef zones in unusual light environments suggests that shallow-water turbid reefs should be considered as mesophotic coral ecosystems.
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Use our App to identify your mesophotic zone boundaries: Light-Driven Model
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See also other publications: Tamir et al. 2019; Pérez-Castro et al. 2022
Highlights
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Fluorescence is highly prevalent in reef-building corals, nevertheless, its biological role is still under ongoing debate.
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We show that plankton exhibits preferential swimming towards green fluorescent cues and that compared to other morphs, higher predation rates are recorded in a green fluorescing morph of mesophotic corals.
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See also other publications: Eyal et al. 2015; Ben-Zvi et al. 2015; Ben-Zvi et al. 2021
Full Publication List
Research publications (peer-reviewed):
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Grinham A, et al. (2024) Short and long-term impacts of a major flood on fine sediment and nitrogen loading to a large coastal embayment. Science of the Total Environment 918:170646. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170646
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Wiedenmann J, D'Angelo C, Mardones Velozo ML, Moore S, Benkwitt CE, Graham NAJ, Hambach B, Wilson PA, Vanstone J, Eyal G, Ben-Zvi O, Loya Y, Genin A (2023) Reef-building corals farm and feed on their photosynthetic symbionts. Nature 620:1018-1024. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06442-5
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Gijsbers, J.C., Englebert, N., Prata, K.E., Pichon, M., Dinesen, Z., Brunner, R., Eyal, G., González-Zapata, F.L., Kahng, S.E., Latijnhouwers, K.R.W., Muir, P., Radice, V.Z., Sánchez, J.A., Vermeij, M.J.A., Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Jacobs, S.J., Bongaerts, P. (2023) Global phylogenomic assessment of Leptoseris and Agaricia reveals substantial undescribed diversity at mesophotic depths. BMC Biology 21, 147. DOI: 10.1186/s12915-023-01630-1
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Grinblat, M., Eyal-Shaham, L., Eyal, G., Ben-Zvi, O., Harii, S., Morita, M., Sakai, K., Hirose, M., Miller, D.J., Loya, Y. (2023) Energy allocation trade-offs as a function of age in fungiid corals. Frontiers in Marine Science, 10, 1113987. DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2023.1113987
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Pérez-Castro, M.A., Eyal, G., Leyte-Morales, G.E., Hinojosa-Arango, G., Enríquez S. (2023) Benthic Characterization of Mesophotic Communities Based on Optical Depths in the Southern Mexican Pacific Coast (Oaxaca). Diversity 15, 531. DOI: 10.3390/d15040531
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Brown, K.T., Eyal, G., Dove, S.G., and Barott, K.L. (2023). Fine-scale heterogeneity reveals disproportionate thermal stress and coral mortality in thermally variable reef habitats during a marine heatwave. Coral Reefs, 42:131-142. DOI: 10.1007/s00338-022-02328-6
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Rinsky, M., Weizman, E., Ben-Asher, H.W., Eyal, G., Zhu, B., and Levy, O. (2022). Temporal gene expression patterns in the coral Euphyllia paradivisa reveal the complexity of biological clocks in the cnidarian-algal symbiosis. Science Advances 8, eabo6467. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo6467
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Hammerman, N.M., Roff, G., Lybolt, T., Eyal, G., and Pandolfi, J.M. (2022). Unravelling Moreton Bay reef history: An urban high-latitude setting for coral development. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 10, 884850. DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.884850
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Eyal, G., Laverick, J.H., Ben-Zvi, O., Brown, K.T., Kramer, N., Tamir, R., Lindemann, Y., Levy, O., and Pandolfi, J.M. (2022). Selective deep water coral bleaching occurs through depth isolation. Science of the Total Environment 844, 157180. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157180
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Ben-Zvi, O., Lindemann, Y., Eyal, G., and Loya, Y. (2022). Coral fluorescence: a prey-lure in deep habitats. Communications Biology 5, 1-8. DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03460-3
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Kramer, N., Eyal, G., Tamir, R., and Loya, Y. (2022). Growth and survival dynamics of mesophotic coral juveniles in shallow reefs. Marine Ecology Progress Series 682, 237-242. DOI: 10.3354/meps13956
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Hammerman, N.M., Roff, G., Rodriguez-Ramirez, A., Leonard, N., Staples, T.L., Eyal, G., Rossbach, S., Havlik, M.N., Saderne, V., and Zhao, J.-x. (2022). Reef accumulation is decoupled from recent degradation in the central and southern Red Sea. Science of the Total Environment 809, 151176. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151176
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Baird, A.H., Edwards, A.J., Guest, J.R., Harii, S., Hatta, M., Lachs, L., Mera, H., Sinniger, F., Abrego, D., Ben-Zvi, O., et al. (2022). A coral spawning calendar for Sesoko Station, Okinawa, Japan. Galaxea, Journal of Coral Reef Studies 24, 41-49. DOI: 10.3755/galaxea.G2021_S10O
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Yuasa, H., Kajitani, R., Nakamura, Y., Takahashi, K., Okuno, M., Kobayashi, F., Shinoda, T., Toyoda, A., Suzuki, Y., Thongtham, N., et al. (2021). Elucidation of the speciation history of three sister species of crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster spp.) based on genomic analysis. DNA Research 28, dsab012. DOI: 10.1093/dnares/dsab012
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Eyal, G., Eyal-Shaham, L., and Loya, Y. (2021). Symbiodiniaceae conduct under natural bleaching stress during advanced gametogenesis stages of a mesophotic coral. Coral Reefs 40, 959-964. DOI: 10.1007/s00338-021-02082-1
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Bongaerts, P., Cooke, I.R., Ying, H., Wels, D., den Haan, S., Hernandez-Agreda, A., Brunner, C.A., Dove, S., Englebert, N., Eyal, G., et al. (2021). Morphological stasis masks ecologically divergent coral species on tropical reefs. Current Biology 31, 2286-2298. e2288. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.028
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Ben-Zvi, O., Wangpraseurt, D., Bronstein, O., Eyal, G., and Loya, Y. (2021). Photosynthesis and bio-optical properties of fluorescent mesophotic corals. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, 651601. DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2021.651601
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Eyal, G., Laverick, J.H., Bongaerts, P., Levy, O., and Pandolfi, J.M. (2021). Mesophotic coral ecosystems of the Great Barrier Reef are understudied and underexplored. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, 622856. DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2021.622856
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Yuval, M., Alonso, I., Eyal, G., Tchernov, D., Loya, Y., Murillo, A.C., and Treibitz, T. (2021). Repeatable semantic reef-mapping through photogrammetry and label-augmentation. Remote Sensing 13, 659. DOI: 10.3390/rs13040659
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Baird, A.H., Guest, J.R., Edwards, A.J., Bauman, A.G., Bouwmeester, J., Mera, H., Abrego, D., Alvarez-Noriega, M., Babcock, R.C., Barbosa, M.B., et al. (2021). An Indo-Pacific coral spawning database. Scientific data 8, 1-9. DOI: 10.1038/s41597-020-00793-8
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Weinstein, D.K., Tamir, R., Kramer, N., Eyal, G., Berenshtein, I., Shaked, Y., Loya, Y., and Torfstein, A. (2021). Mesophotic reef geomorphology categorization, habitat identification, and relationships with surface cover and terrace formation in the Gulf of Aqaba. Geomorphology 379, 107548. DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2020.107548
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Ben-Zvi, O., Ofer, E., Eyal, G., and Loya, Y. (2021). Experimental evidence of temperature-induced bleaching in two fluorescence morphs of a Red Sea mesophotic coral. Coral Reefs 40, 187-199. DOI: 10.1007/s00338-020-02027-0
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Eyal-Shaham, L., Eyal, G., Ben-Zvi, O., Sakai, K., Harii, S., Sinniger, F., Hirose, M., Cabaitan, P., Bronstein, O., and Feldman, B. (2020). A unique reproductive strategy in the mushroom coral Fungia fungites. Coral Reefs 39, 1793-1804. DOI: 10.1007/s00338-020-02004-7
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Wada, N., Yuasa, H., Kajitani, R., Gotoh, Y., Ogura, Y., Yoshimura, D., Toyoda, A., Tang, S.-L., Higashimura, Y., Sweatman, H., et al. (2020). A ubiquitous subcuticular bacterial symbiont of a coral predator, the crown-of-thorns starfish, in the Indo-Pacific. Microbiome 8, 1-14. DOI: 10.1186/s40168-020-00880-3
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Kramer, N., Tamir, R., Eyal, G., and Loya, Y. (2020). Coral morphology portrays the spatial distribution and population size-structure along a 5–100 m depth gradient. Frontiers in Marine Science 7, 615. DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2020.00615
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Laverick, J.H., Tamir, R., Eyal, G., and Loya, Y. (2020). A generalized light‐driven model of community transitions along coral reef depth gradients. Global Ecology and Biogeography 29, 1554-1564. DOI: 10.1111/geb.13140 (Front Cover)
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Tamir, R., Ben-Zvi, O., Eyal, G., Kramer, N., and Loya, Y. (2020). Reciprocal-transplantation between shallow and mesophotic stony corals. Marine Environmental Research, 105035. DOI: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105035
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Ben-Zvi, O., Tamir, R., Keren, N., Tchernov, D., Berman-Frank, I., Kolodny, Y., Benaltabet, T., Bavli, H., Friedman, M., Glanz-Idan, N., et al. (2020). Photophysiology of a mesophotic coral 3 years after transplantation to a shallow environment. Coral Reefs 39, 903-913. DOI: 10.1007/s00338-020-01910-0
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Meron, D., Maor-Landaw, K., Eyal, G., Elifantz, H., Banin, E., Loya, Y., and Levy, O. (2020). The complexity of the holobiont in the Red Sea coral Euphyllia paradivisa under heat stress. Microorganisms 8, 372. DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms8030372
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Tamir, R., Eyal, G., Cohen, I., and Loya, Y. (2020). Effects of light pollution on the early life stages of the most abundant northern red sea coral. Microorganisms 8, 193. DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms8020193
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Bongaerts, P., Perez-Rosales, G., Radice, V.Z., Eyal, G., Gori, A., Gress, E., Hammerman, N.M., Hernandez-Agreda, A., Laverick, J., and Muir, P. (2019). Mesophotic. org: a repository for scientific information on mesophotic ecosystems. Database-The Journal of Biological Databases and Curation 2019, baz140. DOI: 10.1093/database/baz140
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Alonso, I., Yuval, M., Eyal, G., Treibitz, T., and Murillo, A.C. (2019). CoralSeg: Learning coral segmentation from sparse annotations. Journal of Field Robotics 36, 1456-1477. DOI: 10.1002/rob.21915
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Tamir, R., Eyal, G., Kramer, N., Laverick, J.H., and Loya, Y. (2019). Light environment drives the shallow‐to‐mesophotic coral community transition. Ecosphere 10, e02839. DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2839
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Meron, D., Maor-Landaw, K., Weizman, E., Waldman Ben-Asher, H., Eyal, G., Banin, E., Loya, Y., and Levy, O. (2019). The algal symbiont modifies the transcriptome of the scleractinian coral Euphyllia paradivisa during heat stress. Microorganisms 7, 256. DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms7080256
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Lindemann, Y., Eyal, G., and Genin, A. (2019). Intense capture of swarming pteropods by large-polyp corals. Galaxea, Journal of Coral Reef Studies 21, 9-10. DOI: 10.3755/galaxea.21.1_9
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Pinheiro, H.T., Eyal, G., Shepherd, B., and Rocha, L.A. (2019). Ecological insights from environmental disturbances in mesophotic coral ecosystems. Ecosphere 10, e02666. DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2666
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Ben-Zvi, O., Eyal, G., and Loya, Y. (2019). Response of fluorescence morphs of the mesophotic coral Euphyllia paradivisa to ultra-violet radiation. Scientific Reports 9, 5245. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-41710-3
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Eyal-Shaham, L., Eyal, G., Sakai, K., Nozawa, Y., Harii, S., Sinniger, F., Bronstein, O., Ben-Zvi, O., Shlesinger, T., and Loya, Y. (2019). Repetitive sex change in the stony coral Herpolitha limax across a wide geographic range. Scientific Reports 9, 2936. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-37619-y
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Kramer, N., Eyal, G., Tamir, R., and Loya, Y. (2019). Upper mesophotic depths in the coral reefs of Eilat, Red Sea, offer suitable refuge grounds for coral settlement. Scientific Reports 9, 2263. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-38795-1
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Eyal, G., Cohen, I., Eyal-Shaham, L., Ben-Zvi, O., Tikochinski, Y., and Loya, Y. (2019). Photoacclimation and induction of light-enhanced calcification in the mesophotic coral Euphyllia paradivisa. Royal Society Open Science 6, 180527. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.180527
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Andradi-Brown, D.A., Vermeij, M.J., Slattery, M., Lesser, M., Bejarano, I., Appeldoorn, R., Goodbody-Gringley, G., Chequer, A.D., Pitt, J.M., Eddy, C., et al. (2017). Large-scale invasion of western Atlantic mesophotic reefs by lionfish potentially undermines culling-based management. Biological Invasions 19, 939-954. DOI: 10.1007/s10530-016-1358-0
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Hume, B.C., Voolstra, C.R., Arif, C., D’Angelo, C., Burt, J.A., Eyal, G., Loya, Y., and Wiedenmann, J. (2016). Ancestral genetic diversity associated with the rapid spread of stress-tolerant coral symbionts in response to Holocene climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, 4416-4421. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1601910113
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Beijbom, O., Treibitz, T., Kline, D.I., Eyal, G., Khen, A., Neal, B., Loya, Y., Mitchell, B.G., and Kriegman, D. (2016). Improving automated annotation of benthic survey images using wide-band fluorescence. Scientific Reports 6, 23166. DOI: 10.1038/srep23166
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Eyal-Shaham, L., Eyal, G., Tamir, R., and Loya, Y. (2016). Reproduction, abundance and survivorship of two Alveopora spp. in the mesophotic reefs of Eilat, Red Sea. Scientific Reports 6, 20964. DOI: 10.1038/srep20964
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Eyal, G., Eyal-Shaham, L., Cohen, I., Tamir, R., Ben-Zvi, O., Sinniger, F., and Loya, Y. (2016). Euphyllia paradivisa, a successful mesophotic coral in the northern Gulf of Eilat/Aqaba, Red Sea. Coral Reefs 35, 91-102. DOI: 10.1007/s00338-015-1372-1
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Eyal, G., Wiedenmann, J., Grinblat, M., D’Angelo, C., Kramarsky-Winter, E., Treibitz, T., Ben-Zvi, O., Shaked, Y., Smith, T.B., Harii, S., et al. (2015). Spectral diversity and regulation of coral fluorescence in a mesophotic reef habitat in the Red Sea. PloS One 10, e0128697. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0128697
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Katz, T., Ginat, H., Eyal, G., Steiner, Z., Braun, Y., Shalev, S., and Goodman-Tchernov, B. (2015). Desert flash floods form hyperpycnal flows in the coral-rich Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 417, 87-98. DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2015.02.025
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Ben-Zvi, O., Eyal, G., and Loya, Y. (2015). Light-dependent fluorescence in the coral Galaxea fascicularis. Hydrobiologia 759, 15-26. DOI: 10.1007/s10750-014-2063-6
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Lavy, A., Eyal, G., Neal, B., Keren, R., Loya, Y., and Ilan, M. (2015). A quick, easy and non‐intrusive method for underwater volume and surface area evaluation of benthic organisms by 3D computer modelling. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 6, 521-531. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12331
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Pasternak, G., Ziv, R., Eyal, G., Shefer, S., Mienis, H.K., Rittner, O., and Galil, B.S. (2011). On the population of Chromodoris annulata Eliot, 1904 (Mollusca: Opistobranchia: Chromodorididae) off the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Aquatic Invasions 6, S91-S93. DOI: 10.3391/ai.2011.6.S1.021
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Eyal, G., Eyal-Shaham, L., and Loya, Y. (2011). “Teeth-anchorage”: sleeping behavior of a Red Sea filefish on a branching coral. Coral Reefs 30, 707-707. DOI: 10.1007/s00338-011-0766-y
Review & editorial publications (peer-reviewed):
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Pérez-Castro, M.Á., Schubert, N., De Oca, G.A.-M., Leyte-Morales, G.E., Eyal, G., and Hinojosa-Arango, G. (2022). Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems in the Eastern Tropical Pacific: The current state of knowledge and the spatial variability of their depth boundaries. Science of The Total Environment 806, 150576. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150576
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Eyal, G., and Pinheiro, H.T. (2020). Mesophotic ecosystems: the link between shallow and deep-sea habitats. Diversity 12, 411. DOI: 10.3390/d12110411
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Loya, Y., Eyal, G., Treibitz, T., Lesser, M.P., and Appeldoorn, R. (2016). Theme section on mesophotic coral ecosystems: advances in knowledge and future perspectives. Coral Reefs 35, 1-9. DOI: 10.1007/s00338-016-1410-7
Book chapters (peer-reviewed):
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Eyal, G., Yuval, M., and Treibitz, T. (2022). The use of advanced technology for monitoring coral reefs. In Coral Reefs of Australia: Perspectives from Beyond the Water's Edge (CSIRO), pp. 343-354. ISBN: 9781486315499
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Eyal, G., Tamir, R., Kramer, N., Eyal-Shaham, L., and Loya, Y. (2019). The Red Sea: Israel. In Mesophotic coral ecosystems (Springer), pp. 199-214. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-92735-0_11
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Turner, J.A., Andradi-Brown, D.A., Gori, A., Bongaerts, P., Burdett, H.L., Ferrier-Pagès, C., Voolstra, C.R., Weinstein, D.K., Bridge, T.C., Costantini, F., et al. (2019). Key questions for research and conservation of mesophotic coral ecosystems and temperate mesophotic ecosystems. In Mesophotic coral ecosystems (Springer), pp. 989-1003. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-92735-0_52
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Watanabe, T., Watanabe, T.K., Yamazaki, A., Yoneta, S., Sowa, K., Sinniger, F., Eyal, G., Loya, Y., and Harii, S. (2019). Coral sclerochronology: similarities and differences in the coral isotopic signatures between mesophotic and shallow-water reefs. In Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems (Springer), pp. 667-681. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-92735-0_36
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Andradi-Brown, D., Laverick, J., Bejarano, I., Bridge, T., Colin, P., Eyal, G., Jones, R., Kahng, S., Reed, J., and Smith, T. (2016). Threats to mesophotic coral ecosystems and management options. In Mesophotic coral ecosystems - a lifeboat for coral reefs? (UN Environment, GRID-Arendal), pp. 67-82. ISBN: 978-82-7701-150-9
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Baker, E., Thygesen, K., Harris, P., Andradi-Brown, D., Appeldoorn, R.S., Ballantine, D., Bejarano, I., Bridge, T.C., Colin, P.L., Eyal, G., et al. (2016). Mesophotic coral ecosystems: a lifeboat for coral reefs? (UN Environment, GRID-Arendal), pp. 1-98. ISBN: 978-82-7701-150-9