Digital sidescan sonar imagery of the Manches Interiores--Manches Exteriores coral reef complex, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
VeeAnn Cross ◽  
William C. Schwab
1992 ◽  
Author(s):  
William C. Schwab ◽  
R.M. Webb ◽  
W.W. Danforth ◽  
T.F. O'Brien ◽  
B.J. Irwin

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 251
Author(s):  
Adi Zweifler (Zvifler) ◽  
Michael O’Leary ◽  
Kyle Morgan ◽  
Nicola K. Browne

Increasing evidence suggests that coral reefs exposed to elevated turbidity may be more resilient to climate change impacts and serve as an important conservation hotspot. However, logistical difficulties in studying turbid environments have led to poor representation of these reef types within the scientific literature, with studies using different methods and definitions to characterize turbid reefs. Here we review the geological origins and growth histories of turbid reefs from the Holocene (past), their current ecological and environmental states (present), and their potential responses and resilience to increasing local and global pressures (future). We classify turbid reefs using new descriptors based on their turbidity regime (persistent, fluctuating, transitional) and sources of sediment input (natural versus anthropogenic). Further, by comparing the composition, function and resilience of two of the most studied turbid reefs, Paluma Shoals Reef Complex, Australia (natural turbidity) and Singapore reefs (anthropogenic turbidity), we found them to be two distinct types of turbid reefs with different conservation status. As the geographic range of turbid reefs is expected to increase due to local and global stressors, improving our understanding of their responses to environmental change will be central to global coral reef conservation efforts.


2008 ◽  
pp. 263-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis K. Hubbard ◽  
Randolph B. Burke ◽  
Ivan P. Gill ◽  
Wilson R. Ramirez ◽  
Clark Sherman

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
JERALD S. AULT ◽  
STEVEN G. SMITH ◽  
JIANGANG LUO ◽  
MARK E. MONACO ◽  
RICHARD S. APPELDOORN

SUMMARYThe sustainability of multispecies coral reef fisheries is a key conservation concern given their economic and ecological importance. Empirical estimation and numerical model analyses were conducted to evaluate exploitation status via resource reference points (or sustainability benchmarks) for coral reef fishes of the snapper-grouper complex in Puerto Rico. Mean size (L, in length) of animals in the exploited part of the population was estimated from fishery-dependent and fishery-independent size composition data and used as an indicator variable of exploitation rates. In application, fishing mortality rates estimated from L of various data sources were comparable. Of the 25 reef fish species assessed, 16 were below 30% spawning potential ratio (SPR), six were above 30% SPR, and three could not be reliably determined owing to low sample sizes. These findings indicate that a majority of snapper-grouper species in Puerto Rico are currently fished at unsustainable levels.


Phytotaxa ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 127 (1) ◽  
pp. 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER S. LOBBAN ◽  
J. NELSON NAVARRO

A new species of tube-dwelling diatom, unusual in being araphid, is described from benthic coral reef habitats in Guam, Palau, Puerto Rico and Jamaica. Gato gen. nov. is heteropolar and heterovalvar, exhibits very fine striae delimiting a narrow and irregular sternum, and possesses a series of rimmed pores on each side of the foot pole. One valve of the frustule has a rimoportula at the foot pole, but both valves possess a rimoportula at the head pole. The generitype, G. hyalinus sp. nov. forms small, branched colonies. Individual cells are oval, slightly tapered along the apical axis, 30–40 µm x 13–15 µm, with 60–70 striae in 10 µm. On the foot pole with a rimoportula the rimmed pores are connected to the sternum by diagonal striae; several additional rimmed pores interrupt transapical striae further up both valves. We compare valve structure of G. hyalinus with Florella portoricensis and F. pascuensis, which we report for the first time from the Marshall Islands, and to Licmophora spp. We find no taxa to which this genus is related, and can identify no structure potentially homologous to the series of rimmed pores among the diatoms.


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