Stormy Weather
Coral Health and Monitoring Program
coral at coral.AOML.ERL.GOV
Sat Aug 12 16:04:54 EDT 1995
Unfortunately, the CHAMP (Coral Health and Monitoring Program) Home Page
and coral-list server were knocked out by Tropical Storm Jerry, but are
back in the ring. In light of this storm, the two others that appear to
be heading this way, and in remembering Hurricane Andrew which struck here
three years ago yesterday, we offer the following two new abstracts to be
added to our CHAMP Home Page:
====================
Blair, S.M.; McIntosh, T.L.; Mostkoff, B.J. 1994. Impacts of
Hurricane Andrew on the offshore reef systems of central and
northern Dade County, Florida. Bull. Mar. Sci. 54(3): 961-973.
On 24 August 1992, Hurricane Andrew passed in close proximity to
eight natural reef biological monitoring stations and eleven
artificial reef sites offshore of Dade County. Eight qualitative
visual surveys and eight quantitative photogrammetric surveys
were used to estimate the impact of the hurricane on the natural
reefs. The forereef slope of the offshore (5 km offshore) reef,
between 17 and 29 m, was most heavily affected with lesson levels
of damage occurring on the middle (4 km offshore) reef and least
loss of organisms noted on the inner (2.5 km offshore) reef. The
impact to the hard coral, soft coral, sponge and algal components
varied on a given reef tract. The algal community consistently
showed the greatest loss (40 to >90%) of benthic cover. The
sponge community was slightly (0-25%) to heavily (50-75%)
impacted, showing the greatest loss on the offshore reef and
least on the inshore reef. Soft corals showed a similar trend
with 25-50% loss and 0-25% on the offshore and inshore reef,
respectively. Hard corals were least affected with a moderate
loss of benthic cover (38%) on the offshore reef and slight loss
(< 23%) on the other inner two reefs. The effect of the storm on
artificial reefs (i.e., steel vessels, prefabricated modules,
concrete structures) varied greatly. Impacts ranged from no
impact, to movement, to partial or total structural modification.
No pattern of damage relative to location, orientation or depth
of the reef material was discernable.
============
Hughes, T.P. 1994. Catastrophes, phase shifts, and large-scale
degradation of a Caribbean coral reef. Science Wash. 265(5178):
1547-1551.
Many coral reefs have been degraded over the past two to three
decades through a combination of human and natural disturbances.
In Jamaica, the effects of overfishing, hurricane damage, and
disease have combined to destroy most corals, whose abundance has
declined from more than 50 percent in the late 1970s to less than
5 percent today. A dramatic phase shift has occurred, producing a
system dominated by fleshy macroalgae (more than 90 percent
cover). Immediate implementation of management procedures is
necessary to avoid further catastrophic damage.
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