Coral reef primary productivity: A beggar's banquet

Flashy venue, high attendance and much activity: but the food is plain and hard to find, and at the end of the day nobody leaves with much. Primary production in coral reef ecosystems proceeds rapidly through small packages. Maximum areal rates rival the best agricultures, but most of the organic production is conserved and recycled within component organisms and communities. Interactions with animals serve to maximize the productivity of both individual plants and extensive plant assemblages. The diverse aspects of the topic have attracted research for over 40 years. In this, the first of a two-part review, I describe the components of coral reef primary productivity at several levels of organization, and discuss recent approaches to their studs.