Scientific articles
-
2010
Terrestrial and Marine Ecology of Desnoeufs, Amirantes, Seychelles
Terrestrial and Marine Ecology of Desnoeufs, Amirantes, Seychelles.
-
2010
Morphology and Marine Ecology of Boudeuse, Amirantes, Seychelles
The Amirantes group, Seychelles, comprises 24 islands and islets lying between 5o and 6o south of the equator on the Amirantes Bank, western Indian Ocean. The group extends over a distance of 138 km, from African Banks in the north to Desnoeufs in the south. The islands were discovered by the Portuguese navigator Vasco de Gama on his second voyage to India in 1502, soon after acceding to the rank of Admiral, and the islands were subsequently named Ilhas do Almirante or Admiral’s Islands. Boudeuse is one of the two sand cays which rise up from the Banc de la Boudeuse, approximately 60 km south-west of Poivre atoll....
-
2010
Caribbean Corals in Crisis: Record Thermal Stress, Bleaching, and Mortality in 2005
Background: The rising temperature of the world’s oceans has become a major threat to coral reefs globally as the severity and frequency of mass coral bleaching and mortality events increase. In 2005, high ocean temperatures in the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean resulted in the most severe bleaching event ever recorded in the basin. Methodology/Principal Findings: Satellite-based tools provided warnings for coral reef managers and scientists, guiding both the timing and location of researchers’ field observations as anomalously warm conditions developed and spread across the greater Caribbean region from June to October 2005. Field surveys of bleaching and mortality exceeded prior efforts in detail and extent, and provided a new standard for documenting the effects of bleaching...
-
2010
Western Atlantic Coral Reef Health and Resilience Cards
The Western Atlantic Health and Resilience Cards provide photographic examples of the dominant habitat features and biological indicators of coral reef condition, health and resilience to future perturbations. Representative examples of benthic substrates types, indicators of coral health, algal functional groups, dominant sessile invertebrates, large, motile invertebrates, and herbivorous and predatory fishes are presented, with emphasis on major functional groups regulating coral diversity, abundance and condition. This is not intended as a taxonomic ID guide.
-
2010
Detached Acropora palmata fragments (n=1857) generated by the M/V Fortuna Reefer grounding off Mona Island, Puerto Rico were secured to reef substrates or dead standing A. palmata skeletons using stainless steel wire. After 10 years, only 6% (n=104) of the fragments were alive, of which half (n=54) exhibited extensive branching (mean = 5 branches, 89 cm length), and a substantial increase in height (mean = 39 cm). Most surviving fragments were 20-100 cm (original length when first restored), secured to the reef and oriented upright. Fragments died or were lost in the first three years from wire breakage (23%),...
-
2010
Population demographics, especially density, abundance, size structure, and morphology (branching pattern), as well as certain life history traits (e.g. growth rates, reproductive strategy, and longevity), must be considered when developing fisheries management strategies for precious corals in the family Coralliidae, as these provide indicators of the status of these species and their vulnerability to harvest. All species of Coralliidae are sessile, modular (colonial) gorgonians characterized by slow-growth, low rates of natural mortality, and a long lifespan. They typically occur at low densities, but are capable of forming large, highly branched, tree-like structures in absence of disturbance....
-
2010
Deep-Sea Coral Ecosystems of the United States
Coral reefs are among the most spectacular ecosystems on the planet, supporting such rich biodiversity and high density of marine life that they have been referred to as the rainforests of the sea. The coral reefs that most people think of are found in warm shallow waters, generally within recreational diving depths (30 m or less). However, other coral ecosystems thrive on continental shelves, slopes, canyons, ocean ridges, and seamounts around the world, sometimes thousands of meters below the ocean’s surface. These communities are structured by deep-sea corals, also referred to as cold-water corals, and are distributed across a wide range of depths and latitudes, in both temperate and tropical oceans....
