Dahl,-A.L.; Salvat,-B.  Are human impacts, either through 
	traditional or contemporary uses, stabilizing or 
	destabilizing to reef community structure?.  
	PROCEEDINGS-OF-THE-SIXTH-INTERNATIONAL-CORAL-REEF-
	SYMPOSIUM,-TOWNSVILLE,-AUSTRALIA,-8th-12th-AUGUST-1988.-
	VOLUME-1:-PLENARY-ADDRESSES-AND-STATUS-REVIEWS. Choat,-
	J.H.;Barnes,-D.;Borowitzka,-M.A.;Coll,-J.C.;Davies,-
	P.J.;Flood,-P.;Hatcher,-B.G.;et-al.-eds.. 1988. pp. 63-
	69.

The structure of a coral reef community is as much its web of 
functional relationships as its arrangement in space. This 
community structure is viewed by some as the results of an 
ancient, highly evolved system which is stable within certain 
limits, but fragile if pushed beyond those limits, and by 
others as a mosaic of inherently unstable structures in time 
and space undergoing constant perturbations. Both views may 
have some validity where human impacts are concerned, 
depending on the scale of structure studied. Reefs subject 
only to traditional human uses have been so little studied 
that the supposed lack of major destabilizing effects can 
only be inferred from the state of the reefs. Contemporary 
human uses are often correlated with reef degradation.