Decadal comparison of a diminishing coral community: a study using demographics to advance inferences of community status

PeerJ
Margaret W MillerMark J A Vermeij

Abstract

The most common coral monitoring methods estimate coral abundance as percent cover, either via in situ observations or derived from images. In recent years, growing interest and effort has focused on colony-based (demographic) data to assess the status of coral populations and communities. In this study, we relied on two separate data sets (photo-derived percent cover estimates, 2002-12, and opportunistic in situ demographic sampling, 2004 and 2012) to more fully infer decadal changes in coral communities at a small, uninhabited Caribbean island. Photo-derived percent cover documented drastic declines in coral abundance including disproportionate declines in Orbicella spp. While overall in situ estimates of total coral density were not different between years, densities of several rarer taxa were. Meandrina meandrites and Stephanocoenia intersepta increased while Leptoseris cucullata decreased significantly, changes that were not discernable from the photo-derived cover estimates. Demographic data also showed significant shifts to larger colony sizes (both increased mean colony sizes and increased negative skewness of size frequency distributions, but similar maximum colony sizes) for most taxa likely indicating reduced recruit...Continue Reading

References

Jul 19, 2003·Science·Toby A GardnerAndrew R Watkinson
Nov 11, 2008·Marine Pollution Bulletin·David O Obura
May 7, 2011·Environmental Monitoring and Assessment·Steven G SmithJerald S Ault
Oct 3, 2012·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Glenn De'athMarji Puotinen

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Citations

Oct 14, 2020·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Andreas DietzelTerry P Hughes

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Software Mentioned

SIMPER
photoquadrat
DigitalGlobe
ANOSIM
PRIMERe
CPCe
IKONOS

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