CRCP-Comparative status of extant Acropora cervicornis NCEI Accession 0127933

This project was funded for two years by CRCP (FY13-14) and built upon one year of pilot work conducted in FY12 funded by NMFS-SEFSC and SERO as an NRC postdoctoral research fellowship (Huntington).  The goals of the project were to characterize natural, robust Acropora cervicornis populations in different regions, including various aspects of A. cervicornis condition, function (growth and tissue condition), and resident fish assemblages.   To this end, we conducted surveys at sites in four regions (i.e., Dry Tortugas, Southeast Florida, Belize, USVI) designed to span the range of natural A. cervicornis density present each region.  In addition, we conducted similar surveys within restored populations of  at two sites in Puerto Rico with high density restored  populations.  Lastly, we undertook three hypothesis-driven studies in the Dry Tortugas region only, to investigate the potential for positive feedbacks between the sheltering reef fish community and high density stands of A. cervicornis.  A macroagal bioassay was used to determine the relative bioavailability of nutrients in the water surrounding high density versus low density stands of A. cervicornis.  Wild tissue collections of A. cervicornis occurred at these same sites to compare nutrient concentration and zooxanthellae density within colonies.

Tags: 0127933, 127933, 2012-2014, 819, acropora cervicornis, atlantic ocean, belize, belizean barrier reef, benthic, benthos analysis, biological, biological classification, biology, biosphere, caribbean sea, caribbean sea /north atlantic ocean, coastal landforms, coral, coral - colony size, coral growth, coral nutrition, coral reef, coral reef conservation program (crcp), coral reef studies, coral reefs, corals, country/territory, dade county, determining patterns of staghorn coral recovery to establish targets for caribbean reef restoration, doc/noaa/nesdis/ncei, doc/noaa/nesdis/nodc, doc/noaa/nmfs/sefsc, dry tortugas, earth science, ecosystems, fish, fish - coral reef, fish census, fl laboratory, florida, florida reef tract, geomorphic landforms/processes, glovers reef (16n087w0001), gulf of america, gulf of mexico, in situ, land surface, leeward islands, macroalgae, macroalgae (seaweeds), marine biology, marine ecosystems, miami, miami (25n080w0018), monroe county, national centers for environmental information, national marine fisheries service, national oceanographic data center, nesdis, nmfs, noaa, north atlantic ocean, numeric data sets, ocean, ocean basin, oceans, plants, ponce (17n066w0010), puerto rico, pulaski shoal (24n082w0003), reef, reef monitoring and assessment, scale, southeast fisheries science center, st. thomas, st. thomas (18n064w0033), surveillance of wild and outplanted staghorn coral (a.cervicornis), survey - biological, survey - coral reef, survey - swimmer/diver, swimmer/diver, transect monitoring, u. s. virgin islands, u.s. department of commerce, united states of america, us doc, virgin islands, visual analysis, visual observation, visual observations, zoology
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce