Sound-ecosystem-based management of coral reefs is largely based on indicators of reef health state. Currently there are various ecological parameters that serve as reef state indices; however, their practical implications are under debate. In the present study we examine an alternative parameter, the deterioration index (DI), which does not purport to replace the traditional indices but can provide a reliable, stand-alone indication of reef state. Patterns of cytological indices, which are considered as reliable indicators of environmental stressors, have been compared to ten selected reef community indices. The DI showed the highest correlations among community indices to the cytological indices in artificial reefs and high correlation in natural reefs as well. Our results suggest that in cases of lacking adequate monitoring abilities where a full set of community indices cannot be obtained, the DI can serve in many cases as the preferred, stand-alone indicator of coral reef state. 1. Introduction Coral reefs are in serious decline worldwide [1, 2], and concerns for the future existence of the reefs have driven governments, international organizations, and NGOs to seek ways to prevent or mitigate the degradation of these essential ecosystems. A crucial element of coral reef protection and management is efficient and reliable monitoring; a critical tool for identification of reef deterioration, its causes, and countermeasures. At present, there are various monitoring methods that employ diverse indices of coral reef state (e.g., live cover, species diversity, key species abundances (for more details, see [3, 4])). However, many coral reef ecologists have raised doubts about the usefulness and reliability of the commonly used community parameters (in expressing the actual state of reefs (e.g., [5–9])). These doubts are derived from two major factors: first, the high complexity and natural variability of reef communities and, second, the strong dependency of acquiring reliable reef-state indications on long-term, expensive, and complicated monitoring, which includes assessment of diverse community variables (e.g., [10]). It should be stressed that most of the common indices, if examined repeatedly at the same site over several years, indeed provide reliable indications of trends of the coral community state (e.g., [10–13]). However, given the above noted limitations, long-term monitoring programs that include a wide range of community indices are rare. On the other hand, none of the traditional indices can stand alone as a reliable indication of reef
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