Early life-history dynamics of Caribbean coral species on artificial substratum: the importance of competition, growth and variation in life-history strategy

The development of a coral community was monitored for 6 years (1998-2004) on 46 m(2) of artificial settlement substrate in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. Growth and survival of recruits (n=1385) belonging to 16 different species were quantified in relation to characteristics of the benthic community developing around them. The early life history dynamics (i.e. growth rate, growth strategy and survival) of corals differed among species although these differences were small for species occupying similar habitats (i.e. underside versus topside of substratum). In contrast to recruit survival, juvenile growth rates were highly variable and unrelated to benthic community structure, at least at the scale of this study. Competing benthic organisms affected coral recruitment success through space preemption (mainly by macroalgae) or recruit overgrowth (mainly by sponges). The results highlight the small spatial scale (mm-cm) at which the processes responsible for recruitment success or failure occur and emphasize the need to include such small-scale observations in studies of coral early life-phase dynamics.