Partial mortality in massive reef corals as an indicator of sediment stress on coral reefs.

The chief threats it faces, as do other reef corals, are raised sea temperatures, ocean acidification and reef destruction.

However, compared to some other reef corals, this species is relatively resistant to bleaching and to being buried by increased sedimentation.

The layered skeletons look similar to reef corals.

Many reef corals have mass spawning events when vast numbers of gametes are released into the sea at the same time.

In the Palaeozoic, corals looking generally similar to living reef corals may be only distantly related, if at all, to our present day fauna.

One prominent example was in the Maldives during the 1998 warming, during which fewer than 5% of the natural reef corals survived.

As a consequence, there has been no effective check of the growth of seaweed on reef corals.

Like other reef corals, Montipora capitata is threatened by habitat destruction.

Every conceivable form of aquatic life appears to be here, gliding among the underwater canyons and reef corals, so abundant that the water itself looks multicolored.