Time Series Analysis of Coral Health Indices in the Florida Reef Tract
Cara Estes, University of South Florida, cestes@usf.edu (Presenter)
Lauren Toth, USGS, ltoth@usgs.gov
Pamela Hallock, University of South Florida, pmuller@usf.edu
Frank Muller-Karger, University of South Florida, carib@usf.edu
The Florida Keys shallow-water coral reef ecosystem has changed drastically since the 1970’s. The outcry for better management began as a grassroots movement in the 1950’s until a large area was deemed a national marine sanctuary in 1990. Since the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary was created there have been multiple time series databases spanning the length of the area to monitor and preserve marine biodiversity. This study combined the Reef Visual Census data, a fisheries independent time-series database (1999-2018) and the Coral Reef Evaluation and Monitoring Project (1996-2018), a benthic survey time-series database, into three coral health indices calculated almost every year from 1999-2018. The three health indices are the coral health index (developed in Indonesia), the reef health index (used in the Caribbean), and the coral reef resilience index (calculated in the Florida reef tract for only one year). The indices indicated that habitat was the largest contributing factor to “healthier” reefs with patch reef habitats having the highest scores in all the health indices. Coral cover was the largest driving factor of all the indices. Macroalgae estimates did not account for much variation within the indices but showed higher values in offshore sites. The reef fish data indicates higher overall biomass at more offshore sites but having greater diversity in nearshore and patch reef areas. The study highlights the need for more overlapping study sites between the agencies and provides a good baseline to compare to the Mission: Iconic Reefs restoration project funded by NOAA.
Poster: Poster_Estes_3-2_38_35.pdf
Associated Project(s):
Poster Location ID: 3-2
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Poster Session 3
Session Date: Thu (May 11) 3:00-5:00 PM
CCE Program: MBON