REVIEW The status of coral reef ecology research in the Red Sea M. L. Berumen • A. S. Hoey • W. H. Bass • J. Bouwmeester • D. Catania • J. E. M. Cochran • M. T. Khalil • S. Miyake • M. R. Mughal • J. L. Y. Spaet • P. Saenz-Agudelo Received: 23 February 2013 / Accepted: 6 June 2013 / Published online: 21 June 2013 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Abstract The Red Sea has long been recognized as a region of high biodiversity and endemism. Despite this diversity and early history of scientific work, our under- standing of the ecology of coral reefs in the Red Sea has lagged behind that of other large coral reef systems. We carried out a quantitative assessment of ISI-listed research published from the Red Sea in eight specific topics (apex predators, connectivity, coral bleaching, coral reproductive biology, herbivory, marine protected areas, non-coral invertebrates and reef-associated bacteria) and compared the amount of research conducted in the Red Sea to that from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and the Caribbean. On average, for these eight topics, the Red Sea had 1/6th the amount of research compared to the GBR and about 1/8th the amount of the Caribbean. Further, more than 50 % of the published research from the Red Sea originated from the Gulf of Aqaba, a small area ( \ 2 % of the area of the Red Sea) in the far northern Red Sea. We summarize the general state of knowledge in these eight topics and highlight the areas of future research priorities for the Red Sea region. Notably, data that could inform science-based management approaches are badly lacking in most Red Sea countries. The Red Sea, as a geologically ‘‘young’’ sea located in one of the warmest regions of the world, has the potential to provide insight into pressing topics such as speciation processes as well as the capacity of reef systems and organisms to adapt to global climate change. As one of the world’s most biodiverse coral reef regions, the Red Sea may yet have a significant role to play in our understanding of coral reef ecology at a global scale. Keywords Apex predators Á Connectivity Á Coral bleaching Á Coral reproduction Á Herbivory Á Marine protected area Á Porifera Á Reef-associated bacteria Introduction The Red Sea has long been recognized as a region of high biodiversity (Stehli and Wells 1971) and endemism (Ormond and Edwards 1987), home to well over 1,000 species of fishes and over 50 genera of hermatypic corals. The Red Sea coral reefs were some of the first to be examined by early European taxonomists (e.g. Forsska ˚ll, Ehrenberg, Ruppell, Klunzinger), but have become rela- tively inaccessible to Western scientists in recent decades due to complicated visa and permitting regulations, cou- pled with a lack of marine research infrastructure. Despite the size of the Red Sea and diversity of its reef-associated inhabitants, it remains a poorly studied system compared to Communicated by Biology Editor Dr. Hugh Sweatman Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00338-013-1055-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. M. L. Berumen (&) Á A. S. Hoey Á W. H. Bass Á J. Bouwmeester Á D. Catania Á J. E. M. Cochran Á M. T. Khalil Á S. Miyake Á M. R. Mughal Á J. L. Y. Spaet Á P. Saenz-Agudelo Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Jeddah 23955, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia e-mail: michael.berumen@kaust.edu.sa M. L. Berumen Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 266 Woods Hole Rd, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA A. S. Hoey Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia 123 Coral Reefs (2013) 32:737–748 DOI 10.1007/s00338-013-1055-8