11th ICRS Abstract book - Nova Southeastern University

18.710
Corals And Coral Reefs Of The National Marine Sanctuary System: Living
Laboratories For Coral Reef Science And Conservation
William KIENE* 1
1 South East, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Region, NOAA/National Marine Sanctuary
Program, Galveston, TX
The US National Marine Sanctuary System is the largest network of marine protected
areas in the world, managing an unprecedented range of temperate and tropical marine
ecosystems. Differing in their physical, biological, and human settings, the sanctuaries
are linked by common local and global threats to their integrity. As a consequence, the
sanctuary network provides an important living laboratory for exploring the biological,
ecological and social consequences of environmental disturbances and change to marine
ecosystems, and of the management actions that respond to them.
The Sanctuary System embraces coral reef ecosystems representing a wide range of reef
assemblages, biological diversities, and settings. The Florida Keys, Flower Gardens
Banks, Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuaries, and the Papāhanaumokuākea Marine
National Monument are widely separated coral reef management areas encompassing a
range of Pacific and Caribbean coral reef assemblages that face comparable
environmental threats. Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary, at the northern margin of
Atlantic coral development, is a sensitive gauge of environmental change and the
subsequent response by a reef ecosystem. The deep-water coral ecosystems of the
Olympic Coast and other sanctuaries are buffered from some of the stresses faced by
shallow water coral ecosystems and are important measures of the breadth of change to
the global ocean.
This large system of protected areas is a crucible for investigating reef ecosystem
vulnerability and resilience at sites with different biological structures and diversities.
Through its network of facilities, interagency partners, research vessels, scientists, and
outreach capability, the Sanctuary Program seeks collaborations to understand the
functions and responses of key ecological relationships in its different settings, and to
help design, implement, and evaluate conservation strategies for an important set of the
world's coral reefs.
18.711
Long-Term Monitoring Of A High-Latitude Coral Reef System Off Southeast
Florida, Usa: A Partnership Between Academia And Resource Management
David GILLIAM* 1 , Kenneth BANKS 2 , Michael CALLAHAN 3 , Chantal COLLIER 4 ,
Richard DODGE 1 , Louis FISHER 2 , Jennifer WHEATON 3
1 National Coral Reef Institute, Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center,
Dania, FL, 2 Broward County Environmental Protection Department, Plantation, FL,
3 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Fish and Wildlife Research
Institute, St Petersburg, FL, 4 Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Coral Reef
Conservation Program, Miami, FL
Significant coral reef community development exists along the eastern shelf of the United
States from the Dry Tortugas through the Florida Keys (Monroe County) and Southeast
(SE) Florida (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and Martin Counties). State and
county resource managers have partnered with academia to monitor the health of the SE
Florida reef system. Since 2000, more than 20 sites have been monitored annually
offshore Broward County. Quantitative data includes stony coral species cover, colony
size, density, and condition (bleaching, disease, etc.) and gorgonian and sponge density.
The SE Florida Coral Reef Evaluation and Monitoring Project (SECREMP) was
established in 2003 as an expansion of the Florida Keys Coral Reef Evaluation and
Monitoring Project (CREMP). Thirteen SECREMP sites are monitored annually across
the 4 SE Florida counties. The stony coral, gorgonian, sponge, and other functional group
cover data collected within the SECREMP sites and the Keys CREMP sites provides
status and trend information for the entire Florida reef tract. The SE Florida reef system
typically has 2-4% stony coral cover with more than 30 stony coral species and a diverse
assemblage of octocoral, sponges, and fishes. Since their inception, monitoring efforts
have shown relatively stable levels in stony coral cover and density. However, there have
been many impacts to the SE Florida ecosystem resulting from its proximity to the highly
developed and urbanized SE Florida coast. These reefs are influenced by many factors
including commercial and recreational fishing and diving, major shipping ports, sewer
outfalls, ship groundings, and coastal construction activities. SE Florida’s coral reef
ecosystems generate $1.1 billion in annual income and support 36,000 jobs in the region.
The uniqueness and value of these resources to the community demands sustained
cooperative monitoring efforts and increased investigations into limiting
environmental/ecological processes.
Poster Mini-Symposium 18: Reef Status and Trends
18.712
An Investigation Of Eight Years Of Coral Reef Data From Melanesia And South East
Asia: Vitality, Percent Coverage, Reef Area And The Effects Of A Tsunami
M. Katie OLDS* 1 , Phil DUSTAN 1
1 Grice Marine Laboratory, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC
Coral reefs are the most biologically diverse and ancient ecosystems on earth. Recent reports
show that coral reefs are facing significant environmental stresses most of which are of
anthropogenic origin. The Planetary Coral Reef Foundation (PCRF) set up a long-term coral
reef data collection project using methods developed by Dr. Phil Dustan in 1995. Since 1995
PCRF’s research vessels have visited coral reefs worldwide, and in some cases have returned to
several study sites to create a timeline of data for particular reefs. In this study we aim to
analyze the data from repeated study sites to determine long term change on those reefs
regarding vitality, percent live hard coral coverage and reef area. Data analysis will be
compared to predicted changes set forth by the model “Reefs at Risk” (Bryant et al. 1998). In
this study we also aim to determine the effects of the tsunami event on 1 April 2007 in the
Solomon Islands. The epicenter of the earthquake was only kilometers away from the study site
in the Solomon Islands for which we have three pre-tsunami data sets. We will return to the
Solomon Islands for the final, post-tsunami study. Findings of this study will distinguish local
and planetary stresses to coral reefs and reveal the levels of these stresses coral reefs may have
faced over the past eight years.
18.713
Diversity And Spatial Distribution Of The Macrobenthic Organisms At The Ponta Verde
Coral Reef, Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil
Monica CORREIA* 1
1 Biodiversidade & Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceió - Alagoas, Brazil
The macrobenthic spatial distribution at the Brazilian coral reefs is poorly known, but in these
ecosystems have high endemic Scleractinia corals and others invertebrate. In this paper, the
macrobenthic spatial distribution on the intertidal zone at the Ponta Verde coral reef, Maceió
city, Alagoas State, northeast of Brazil, was characterized. The qualitative and quantitative data
were obtained by the video-transect technique, along 7 transverse transects and 3 other parallel
transects to the coastline, during low tide when of approximately 1 km2 the reef platform was
exposed. There were 26 macrobenthic taxa chosen for spatial distribution analysis, based on the
coverage percentage. The Surf System 6.04 Program was used to identify the patches and other
analyses were based on the Bray Curtis index with UPGMA. The data showed some different
patches, with the most significant quantitative taxa registered being Zoanthus sociatus and
Palythoa caribaeorum for the macrofauna, and among the macroflora, Halimeda opuntia and
Sargassum cymosum. Species richness was noted to have a progressively diminished the reef
border. Shannon diversity index indicated an independent behavior of the total number of taxa
and also evenness. The cluster analysis identified seven associations of which the most
significant were the Scleractinia corals Agaricia agaricites - Porites spp at the north zone and
also along the reef border two associated organisms Palythoa caribaeorum - Gelidiela sp and
Caulerpa racemosa - Bryopsis sp were observed. The hypothesis of macrobenthic
heterogeneous colonization by patches was confirmed at the Ponta Verde coral reef, on the
coast of Maceió city. The spatial distribution was related to the capacity of these organisms to
survive the environmental stress caused by the tide variation and hydrodynamic intensity, but
the effects made by human action should still be considered, because this coral reef is located
on an urban site.
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