<<  <  >  >>

 

E  C O S Y S T E M FU N C T I O N I  N D I C AT O R S

CORAL CONDITION

Conservation Objective

Maintain (or create) the environmental conditions (including fish populations, water quality characteristics,

etc.) needed to support healthy corals, identify areas of high and low coral resilience. Develop

strategies to minimize human impacts, particularly during times of disturbance (e.g. bleaching events or

hurricanes). Longer-term goal: maintain or restore coral abundance to levels sufficient to maintain net

reef accretion.

Threats

The main threats to corals are disease, bleaching, competition and predation, hurricanes, effects of

overfishing of herbivores, pollution (including sedimentation, nutrification and contaminants), direct

removal or damage, and global climate change.

Management Actions

· Develop an early-warning network for coral bleaching events in the MAR, plus a regional rapid

response monitoring program.

· Severely restrict human activities that negatively impact coral condition (e.g., dredging, coastal

construction near reef areas) during times of thermal stress in the late summer months and

particularly during coral bleaching events.

· Re-evaluate MPA design and incorporate considerations of resiliency into planning.

· Reduce sediment and pollution runoff associated with agricultural practices, coastal development,

and marine pollution -- through the development and implementation of better management

practices.

· Increase conservation practices, education, and environmental property management by

implementing codes of conduct for marine recreation providers, hotels and cruise lines.

· Reduce human activities contributing to global climate change. For example, switch to 4-stroke

outboard engines and invest in wind and solar power instead of generators.

the past ten years, and Caribbean reefs have been

Coral condition takes into consideration coral mortality

significantly impacted18. These diseases, which result

(partial or complete), disease and bleaching. These

in varying amounts of mortality, generally indicate a

conditions are affected by natural and human factors,

reduction in coral vitality, which is directly related to

and it is often difficult to tease out the effects of the

overall reef health.

various agents of change.

Coral bleaching occurs when stressed corals eject the

Corals can experience complete or partial mortality.

symbiotic, pigmented algae that normally live within

As a result, their population dynamics are complex

the coral's tissues. Natural or background bleaching

and not fully understood. The appearance of dead

is often temporary, with corals regaining their algal

corals, both recent and old dead, offers the potential

partners -- and therefore their pigmentation -- after

to hindcast when the corals died. Patterns of partial

several weeks or a few months.

mortality are related to coral size, colony morphology,

and the distribution and intensity of disturbances.

However, mass bleaching seems to have increased

Increased coral mortality has had obvious negative

in frequency and severity recently and is of great

consequences  for  many  important  ecological

concern. Severe prolonged or mass bleaching may

processes in the MAR region within the last several

result in partial or total mortality of a coral, reduced

decades.

coral skeletal growth, a decline in reproductive

output, and an inability to resist disease or compete

Coral diseases seem to have been on the rise over

54