In an eastern-Pacific coral assemblage at Devil’s Crown, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, two coral species, Psammocora stellata and Cycloseris ( Diaseris ) distorta , form dense populations of unattached colonies on sand and rubble substrata. In the Galápagos, living C . ( D .) distorta is found only at this single site, whereas populations of P. stellata are found throughout the Archipelago. Six cores dating to ~ 7700 yBP showed P. stellata to be dominant throughout the history of this isolated community, but C . ( D .) distorta increased in abundance from ~ 2200 yBP and reached peak abundance between 1471 yBP and the present. The relative frequency of the two coral species may be linked to millennial-scale climatic variability, and this site may represent a refuge for C. ( D .) distorta from unfavorable climatic fluctuations on millennial timescales. Our results demonstrate that some corals can persist in isolated populations for millennia.

中文翻译：

---

加拉帕戈斯群岛孤立、自由生活的珊瑚群持续存在 7700 年：珊瑚保护区的模型？

在厄瓜多尔加拉帕戈斯群岛恶魔之冠的东太平洋珊瑚群中，两种珊瑚物种 Psammocora stellata 和 Cycloseris (Diaseris) tructa 在沙子和碎石基质上形成密集的独立群落种群。在加拉帕戈斯群岛，生活 C . ( D .) puncta 仅在这个单一地点发现，而 P. stellata 种群遍布整个群岛。可追溯到~ 7700 yBP 的六个核心表明 P. stellata 在这个孤立社区的整个历史中占主导地位，但 C . ( D .) 扭曲的丰度从~2200 yBP 开始增加，并在 1471 yBP 和现在之间达到峰值丰度。这两种珊瑚物种的相对频率可能与千禧年尺度的气候变化有关，该地点可能代表 C. (D.) 畸变在千年时间尺度上的不利气候波动的避难所。