Vol. 3: 167-180, 1980 1 MARINE ECOLOGY - PROGRESS SERIES Published August 31 Mar. Ecol. hog. Ser. l
REVIEW
Effects of Oil Pollution on Coral Reef Communities
Y.Loya and B.Rinkevich Department of Zoology, The George S. Wise Centre for Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University. Tel-Aviv. Israel

Long-term and quantitative studies have now established that oil pollution may cause significant dam- age to reef corals. Birkeland et al. (1976),for example, found oil-depressed growth rates of corals, and Rinkevich and Loya (1977)reported damage to the reproductive system of corals and an almost complete lack of recolonization of hermatypic corals in reef areas chronically polluted by oil (Loya, 1975; 1976a).The first field evidence that some reef building corals may be seri- ously damaged if coated with oil when exposed to air at low tide, was provided by Johannes et al. (1975). Twenty-two coral species from Enewetak Atoll were partially exposed to Santa Maria crude oil for 1.5 h. The corals were also exposed to full sunlight for l h and then placed back on the reef. Complete tissue breakdown occurred in areas to which oil adhered, in patches of a few mm diameter. No signs of regener tion were observed at the affected areas during 4 weeks of periodical observations, while portions to which oil did not adhere appeared to be health.

This is avery long paper and can be found at http://www.tau.ac.il/lifesci/departments/zoology/members/loya/027.pdf.pdf