Rapid recovery of coral cover following acute disturbance has been documented on many reefs. Yet measuring coverage alone can mask shifts in community and demographic structure. Here, we quantify long-term changes in population size structure for three common genera (Acropora, Pocillopora, and Stylophora) at an eastern outer reef in Palau, Micronesia, following catastrophic loss of corals due to typhoon Bopha in 2012, based on size measurements from 3648 coral colonies. Mean colony size returned to pre-disturbance levels within 4 and 6 years for Stylophora and Pocillopora, respectively. By 2020, Pocillopora colony density far exceeded pre-disturbance levels, with rapid successful recruitment following typhoon Bopha. Despite recovery of Acropora colony density by 2020, populations remained dominated by smaller colonies. We demonstrate that full demographic recovery can occur more rapidly for pocilloporids (within 6 years) compared to Acropora which had not fully recovered by 8 years post-disturbance, possibly due to fewer annual recruitment events and larger maximum colony sizes. Our results highlight the value of demographic metrics as early indicators of recovery.

据记载，许多珊瑚礁在受到严重干扰后珊瑚覆盖范围迅速恢复。然而，仅衡量覆盖率可能会掩盖社区和人口结构的变化。在此，我们基于尺寸测量，量化了 2012 年台风宝霞造成珊瑚灾难性损失后，密克罗尼西亚帕劳东部外礁的三个常见属（鹿角珊瑚属、波西洛珊瑚属和柱珊瑚属）种群规模结构的长期变化。来自 3648 个珊瑚群。Stylophora和Pocillopora的平均菌落大小分别在 4 和 6 年内恢复到干扰前的水平。到 2020 年，Pocillopora群体密度远远超过了干扰前的水平，并在台风宝霞之后迅速成功地进行了补充。尽管鹿角珊瑚群落密度到 2020 年有所恢复，但种群数量仍以较小的群落为主。我们证明，与鹿角珊瑚相比，细孔珊瑚的种群数量恢复可以更快（6 年内），鹿角珊瑚在扰动后 8 年尚未完全恢复，这可能是由于年度招募事件较少和最大群体规模较大。我们的结果强调了人口统计指标作为早期复苏指标的价值。