to ensure that protection strategies are maximized.
Conservation Prioritization of Bleaching-Resistant
and Resilient Coral Reefs
In addition, coral reefs need to be managed for their
overall survival, which also depends on other factors
Conservation
Areal Extent
Condition
such as reproduction, genetic diversity and structural
Priority
integrity.
Very High
> 1000 m
Type 1 and Type 2 Resiliency
2
High
700 m2 1000 m2
Type 1 3 Resiliency
For further discussion
of
this
indicator
see
Medium
300 m2 700 m2
Type 1 3 Resiliency
references60,61.
Low
< 300 m
Type 1 4 Resiliency
2
Data Source60
Status
Status
A comparison of the bleaching-resilient/resistant
A MAR regional assessment of coral reef resilience
areas and existing marine protected areas will
and resistance areas has not yet been conducted.
reveal the proportion of resilient and resistant reef
However, there are various unconsolidated reports
area already under some form of protection. Such
of areas that have been particularly damaged from
a comparison will also facilitate the development of
bleaching, with fewer reports of reefs that did not
management strategies for unprotected resilient and
bleach in bleaching years.
resistant areas.
Usefulness
Usefulness
The Nature Conservancy has conducted training
sessions in the MAR region based on their Reef
This indicator provides a means of estimating location
Resilience toolkit. A preliminary effort for ranking all of
and size of MAR coral reef areas that are potentially
Belize's reefs was conducted in 2004, with the result
resilient or resistant due to favorable abiotic or biotic
for Glover's Reef shown below62.
features. This measure provides important information
Data Needs
for understanding the overall capacity of the coral reef
system to tolerate global climate change impacts.
Additional information or analysis is needed in the
From this perspective, this indicator is very useful for
following areas:
integrating management strategies, including MPA
delineation.
· Regionally consistent MAR reef habitat maps (see
S11 Coral Reef Areal Extent);
It must be noted, however, that this indicator focuses
on bleaching attributed to thermal stress and not
· Historicaldataorknowledgeregardingpastbleaching
necessarily from other stressors (including pollution,
events and a thorough analysis of historical data;
breakage and UV exposure). Resistance and resilience
and
to other stressors are influenced by a variety of other
factors and would not necessarily have the same
· Real-time, coordinated bleaching response surveys
response patterns. Therefore, resilient and resistant
to identify and track coral bleaching events
reef areas identified through the process above will
(e.g., similar to the Florida Keys) BleachWatch
also have to be assessed for overall condition of health
Program57).
Glover's Reef Resiliency to Bleaching: Expert Mapping
Local stakeholders and scientists identified coral bleaching, physical damage recreation (anchors and snorkelers), and
overfishing (both local and non-local fishers) as key threats to the reef during a threat analysis and mapping workshop
hosted by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in February 2004 and reported by WRI62.
In evaluating the threat of coral bleaching, areas
of high to low resistance and high to low resilience
were mapped. High resistance areas are less likely to
bleach because of depth, openness and faster water
movement. High resilience areas are more likely to
recover quickly because of factors promoting recovery,
such as the availability of coral larvae.
The areas were mapped using a combination of local
knowledge of past bleaching patterns and theoretical
expectations based on the environmental conditions in
different areas of the atoll.
D1
D1 5
Source62
119