Regional Monitoring of Coral Condition in the Florida Keys

Abstract

Tropical reef corals have experienced unprecedented levels of bleaching and disease during the last three decades. Declining health has been attributed to several stressors, including exposures to elevated water temperature, increased solar radiation, and degraded water quality. Consequences of coral bleaching and disease vary; some recover, while others lose tissue, die, and succumb to algal overgrowth. In 2000, a regional monitoring project documented disease prevalence and bleaching across 41 km2 of coral reefs in the Florida Keys. Thirty sites were randomly selected from a spatially-balanced grid. A radial belt transect (113 m2) was surveyed at each site and 100-300 colonies were encountered in each transect. The coral species and health status was recorded for each colony. No site had greater than 13 percent disease prevalence and ~80 percent of the reef area had

Parent Publication

• Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium: Unifying Knowledge for Sustainability in the Western Hemisphere

Citation

Fisher, William S.; Santavy, Deborah L.; Davis, William P.; Courtney, Lee A. 2006. Regional Monitoring of Coral Condition in the Florida Keys. In: Aguirre-Bravo, C.; Pellicane, Patrick J.; Burns, Denver P.; and Draggan, Sidney, Eds. 2006. Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium: Unifying Knowledge for Sustainability in the Western Hemisphere Proceedings RMRS-P-42CD. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 304-311