Hallock,-P.  The role of nutrient availability in bioerosion: 
	Consequences to carbonate buildups.  PALAEOGEOGR.,-
	PALAEOCLIMATOL.,-PALAEOECOL. 1988. vol. 63, no. 1-3, pp. 
	275-291.

Zooxanthellate organisms, which are among the major carbonate 
producers on coral reefs, are highly adapted to nutrient-
deficient conditions and tend to be outcompeted by 
filamentous or fleshy algae if nutrients are abundant. Reef-
dwelling bioeroding organisms, on the other hand, seem to 
increase in abundance with increasing availability of 
nutrient and food resources. Maximum rates of calcium 
carbonate production in a reef system are comparable in 
magnitude to maximum rates of bioerosion. The dynamic 
interplay between accretion and destruction of coral reefs is 
therefore likely to be strongly influenced by nutrient 
availability. Some carbonate depositional hiatuses and 
bioerosional surfaces are local phenomena, evidence of 
responses to local increases in nutrient availability 
resulting from submergence of soils, runoff, or topographic 
upwelling. Other appear to reflect regional or worldwide 
events. Because many carbonate-producing organisms have life 
history strategies specialized to nutrient-deficient 
conditions, they are unable to compete when nutrients become 
plentiful. Events that triggered ocean turnover or sharp 
increases in the rate of deep ocean circulation would have 
increased sea-surface nutrient availability worldwide. Such 
eutrophication could have caused widespread extinctions in 
reef communities.