https://phys.org/news/2018-06-barnacles-shallow-life-coral-reefs.html

Rice marine biologist Adrienne Correa and her former undergraduate student, alumna Rebecca Maher, leaped into the project to quantify how barnacles infest stony coral over a variety of conditions and reduce calcium carbonate on reefs.

The Rice team, along with researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of the Virgin Islands, published results in the open-access journal PLoS One that showed Lithotrya dorsalis, a species of barnacle that bores into stony coral for protection, tends to favor colonies in shallower waters, perhaps because food is more plentiful there.