In coral reef conservation and management, the prevailing metric of reef health is percent coral cover, a measurement commonly used with the assumption that each unit of live coral tissue has equivalent ecological value. Here we show that the reproductive output of a coral population is not proportional to the cover of coral present. Instead, when compared to declining populations nearby, high cover coral populations produced up to four times more larvae per square centimeter of tissue, resulting in up to 200 times higher larval production per square meter of reef. Importantly, corals that produced more larvae did not produce smaller larvae, as predicted by resource allocation theory. Instead, higher fecundity corresponded to higher energetic lipid reserves in higher cover coral populations. In the wake of unprecedented global coral bleaching, our findings suggest that the largest reductions in coral reproduction may occur when corals are lost from previously healthy populations.

中文翻译：

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健康人群中的珊瑚每单位覆盖面积产生更多的幼虫

在珊瑚礁的保护和管理中，主要的珊瑚礁健康度量标准是珊瑚覆盖率，该测量通常在假设每个活珊瑚组织具有同等生态价值的假设下使用。在这里，我们表明，珊瑚种群的繁殖产量与存在的珊瑚的覆盖率不成比例。相反，与附近数量下降的种群相比，高覆盖率的珊瑚种群每平方厘米组织的幼虫产量增加了四倍，导致每平方米礁石的幼虫产量增加了200倍。重要的是，根据资源分配理论的预测，产生更多幼体的珊瑚不会产生较小的幼体。相反，较高的繁殖力对应于较高覆盖的珊瑚种群中较高的能量脂质储备。在全球珊瑚史无前例的漂白之后，