A Review of Reef Restoration and Coral Propagation Using the Threatened Genus Acropora in the Caribbean and Western Atlantic

2012 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 1075-1098 ◽  
Author(s):  
CN Young ◽  
SA Schopmeyer ◽  
D Lirman
PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e2597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Lirman ◽  
Stephanie Schopmeyer

Reef restoration activities have proliferated in response to the need to mitigate coral declines and recover lost reef structure, function, and ecosystem services. Here, we describe the recent shift from costly and complex engineering solutions to recover degraded reef structure to more economical and efficient ecological approaches that focus on recovering the living components of reef communities. We review the adoption and expansion of the coral gardening framework in the Caribbean and Western Atlantic where practitioners now grow and outplant 10,000’s of corals onto degraded reefs each year. We detail the steps for establishing a gardening program as well as long-term goals and direct and indirect benefits of this approach in our region. With a strong scientific basis, coral gardening activities now contribute significantly to reef and species recovery, provide important scientific, education, and outreach opportunities, and offer alternate livelihoods to local stakeholders. While challenges still remain, the transition from engineering to ecological solutions for reef degradation has opened the field of coral reef restoration to a wider audience poised to contribute to reef conservation and recovery in regions where coral losses and recruitment bottlenecks hinder natural recovery.


2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 697-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geerat J. Vermeij

The earliest known members of the Thais clade of rapanine muricid neogastropods comprise four species from the Cantaure Formation (early Miocene: Burdigalian) of Venezuela; three of these species are new. Neorapana rotundata Gibson-Smith et al., 1997, is most closely related to the Recent Pacific Mexican N. tuberculata (Sowerby, 1835), and represents the only known Atlantic occurrence of the genus. Thais brevicula new species is closest to T. callaoensis (Gray, 1828) from the Recent of northern Peru and the Galápagos. A review of the genus Thais indicates that the typical members of this group occur in the South Atlantic, West Africa, and eastern Pacific, but not in the Recent fauna of the southern Caribbean. Stramonita bifida new species is a large species related to the Recent S. haemastoma floridana (Conrad, 1837), which occurs throughout the Caribbean. A review of American species of Stramonita indicates that the taxon S. biserialis (de Blainville, 1832) from the Recent fauna of the eastern Pacific, and the taxon S. h. haemastoma (Linnaeus, 1767), may each be composed of more than one species despite the teleplanic dispersal of their larvae. Stramonita semiplicata new species is closely related to the Recent S. bicarinata (de Blainville, 1832) from the South Atlantic, and represents a lineage that occurred in the Caribbean region until at least the late Miocene. It may have given rise to the eastern Pacific genus Acanthais. The higher diversity and greater antipredatory specialization of eastern Pacific as compared to western Atlantic members of the Thais clade may have resulted from higher post-Miocene rates of speciation and lower extinction rates in the eastern Pacific.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gisela Costa Ribeiro ◽  
André Pereira Cattani ◽  
Mauricio Hostim-Silva ◽  
Leandro Clezar ◽  
Ana Carolina dos Passos ◽  
...  

Abstract: This study aimed to present a checklist of marine fishes from coastal environments of the Island of Santa Catarina, including comments on the zoogeographic affinities, conservation status of each species, and functional groups. A total of 169 fish species belonging to 30 orders and 58 families were recorded. The most speciose families were Sciaenidae, Carangidae and, Engraulidae, representing 26,62% of the recorded species. Anchoa was the richest genus, followed by Sphoeroides and Cynoscion. Most of the species have their distribution limited to the western Atlantic, and two groups of fish were distinguished according to the species distributions: 1) species occurring in the Caribbean and in the Brazilian Province; and 2) Transatlantic species. Thirteen species are critically threatened, 10 are overexploited on the Brazilian coast, and 2 are threatened by extinction. Most of the species are either marine stragglers or marine migrants, and most of them are zoobenthivores, piscivores, or both.


2021 ◽  
Vol 774 ◽  
pp. 155-177
Author(s):  
Hossein Ashrafi ◽  
J. Antonio Baeza ◽  
Zdeněk Ďuriš

The present study focuses on shrimps belonging to the genus Lysmata Risso, 1816, collected from Madagascar during the Atimo Vatae expedition carried out in 2010. Lysmata malagasy sp. nov. is a new species belonging to the clade named “long accessory ramous” or “cosmopolitan” in previous phylogenetic studies. The new species can be distinguished from the only two other representatives of this group in the Indo-west Pacific, L. ternatensis De Man, 1902, and L. trisetacea (Heller, 1861), by the accessory ramus of the lateral antennular flagellum consisting of four elongated articles. Lysmata lipkei Okuno & Fiedler, 2010 is reported here from Madagascar with a remarkable extension of its known range after its original description from Japan. This species has also been reported from Singapore and, as alien species, from Brazil. Lastly, L. kuekenthali De Man, 1902 known from numerous localities in the Indo-West Pacific biogeographic area, is reported for the first time from Madagascar. Results of the present morphological and molecular analyses suggest that L. hochi Baeza & Anker, 2008 from the Caribbean Sea is a synonym of the Indo-West Pacific L. kuekenthali, and thus the latter species is alien in the western Atlantic.


Author(s):  
Luz M. Mejía Ladino ◽  
Arturo Acero P. ◽  
Luz S. Mejía M. ◽  
Andrea Polanco F.

The family Antennariidae is represented by two genera (Antennarius and Histrio) and seven species in the Western Atlantic, and by two genera (Antennarius and Antennatus) and five species in the Eastern Pacific. All the species are known from Colombian waters, with the exception of Antenanrius coccineus. In this study we review the family Antenariidae in Colombia, based on the examination of 51 specimens. Antennarius radiosus is first recorded from the Colombian Caribbean, based on two specimens collected with trawls at 20 m depth in Buritaca (Magdalena) and Isla Fuerte (Córdoba). Antennarius radiosus, Antennarius bermudensis, Antennarius multiocellatus, Antennarius ocellatus and Antennarius pauciradiatus are restricted to the Western Atlantic. The most common species found in Colombian seas are Antennarius striatus in the Caribbean and Antennarius avalonis in the Pacific. Histrio histrio is the only species with an almost circumglobal distribution. A key to identify antenariid fishes from Colombia is provided.


PeerJ ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. e1301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adiël A. Klompmaker ◽  
Roger W. Portell ◽  
Aaron T. Klier ◽  
Vanessa Prueter ◽  
Alyssa L. Tucker

Spider crabs (Majoidea) are well-known from modern oceans and are also common in the western part of the Atlantic Ocean. When spider crabs appeared in the Western Atlantic in deep time, and when they became diverse, hinges on their fossil record. By reviewing their fossil record, we show that (1) spider crabs first appeared in the Western Atlantic in the Late Cretaceous, (2) they became common since the Miocene, and (3) most species and genera are found in the Caribbean region from the Miocene onwards. Furthermore, taxonomic work on some modern and fossil Mithracidae, a family that might have originated in the Western Atlantic, was conducted. Specifically,Maguimithraxgen. nov. is erected to accommodate the extant speciesDamithrax spinosissimus, whileDamithraxcf.pleuracanthusis recognized for the first time from the fossil record (late Pliocene–early Pleistocene, Florida, USA). Furthermore, two new species are described from the lower Miocene coral-associated limestones of Jamaica (Mithrax arawakumsp. nov. andNemausa windsoraesp. nov.). Spurred by a recent revision of the subfamily, two known species from the same deposits are refigured and transferred to new genera:Mithrax donovanitoNemausa, andMithrax unguistoDamithrax. The diverse assemblage of decapods from these coral-associated limestones underlines the importance of reefs for the abundance and diversity of decapods in deep time. Finally, we quantitatively show that these crabs possess allometric growth in that length/width ratios drop as specimens grow, a factor that is not always taken into account while describing and comparing among taxa.


Zootaxa ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2346 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-61
Author(s):  
BENJAMIN C. VICTOR ◽  
LOURDES VASQUEZ-YEOMANS ◽  
MARTHA VALDEZ-MORENO ◽  
LESLIE WILK ◽  
DAVID L. JONES ◽  
...  

Additional larval, juvenile, and adult specimens and live photographs of the Caribbean Kuna Goby, Coryphopterus kuna, expand the known geographic range for the species and allow a comprehensive description of all the life stages for this recently-discovered species, including age and growth estimates from daily otolith increments. The Kuna Goby is found widely throughout the tropical western Atlantic, including southern Florida, Quintana Roo on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Panama, San Andres Island, Bonaire, and Guadeloupe. The additional specimens indicate that C. kuna has a pelvic frenum and that females have a black flag on the outer portion of the first two spinous dorsal-fin membranes, while males have a dark stripe along the mid-length of the spinous dorsal fin. The development of melanophores on pelagic larvae through the transition to settled juvenile is described. The Kuna Goby is a notably small goby: larvae settle around 7–9 mm SL, adults mature at 10–11 mm SL and then only attain about 17 mm SL. Kuna Gobies settle after a 60-day pelagic larval life, and mature rapidly. They are reproductive in as few as three weeks and live for about two months after settlement. This is the first reported fish in which the pelagic larval duration is generally longer than the post-settlement lifespan.


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