Short-term temporal trends of a coral reef in Samana (Dominican Republic): The value of a permanent monitoring program to identify drivers of rapid change
Permanent monitoring programs are valuable to identify drivers of ecosystem trends. Results of a study of coral reefs in the Dominican Republic highlighted the value of recurrent and permanent monitoring programs to identify stressors affecting coral reefs.
Subject Tags
- Reefs
- Coastal
Abstract
Permanent monitoring programs are valuable to identify drivers of ecosystem trends. For example, in 2021, we reported the first record of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (sctld) along the northeastern coast of the Dominican Republic, affecting major reef—building coral species with a prevalence above 30%. However, a few sites such as Carenero remained unaffected by sctld for almost 2 years. The average coral cover in this site was about 18—25% (mean 18.3% ± sd 1.5), and disease prevalence did not exceed 7% in the coral community. During the first quarter of 2022, a few colonies (<1%) of Montastraea covernosa, Pseudodiploria strigosa and Colpophyllia natans started to show macroscopic signs of sctld and between April and September of that year, average prevalence of sctld increased 4—fold. In September 2022, Hurricane Fiona affected the Dominican Republic, hitting the island’s eastern coast and moving northwest. Coral diseases such as sctld and Caribbean Yellow Band Disease (CYBD) increased in prevalence, reaching up to 36% among the top 5 coral reef—building species and the average of dead colonies reached 43%. We recorded a 3—fold reduction of average live coral cover (77% lost) by the end of 2022, with Orbicella faveolata, M. covernosa, C. natans and P. strigosa the most affected species. Furthermore, Fiona lifted and turned upside down large O. faveolata colonies, particularly in the reef flat, and severely affected a large thicket of Acropora cervicornis. Results highlights the value of recurrent and permanent monitoring programs to identify stressors affecting coral reefs.
Citation
Croquer, A., Zambrano, S., Evangelista-Perez, D.Y., King, S., Guendulain-Garcia, S., Villalpando, M.F. and Sellares-Blasco, R., 2024. Short-term temporal trends of a coral reef in Samana (Dominican Republic): The value of a permanent monitoring program to identify drivers of rapid change. Gulf and Caribbean Research, 35(1), pp.GCFI-30. https://doi.org/10.18785/gcr.3501.16
Authors
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Aldo Croquer
Marine Program Manager, Caribbean
The Nature Conservancy
Phone: Phone
Email: aldo.croquer@tnc.org