ConserveOnline - Hurricanes and Caribbean Coral Reefs: Impacts, Recovery Patterns, and role in Long-term Decline

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Hurricanes and Caribbean Coral Reefs: Impacts, Recovery Patterns, and role in Long-term Decline

By Web Admin on 10/31/2006 | Keyword(s): Coral reef resources

This paper is arguably the first quantitative evaluation of short and longer term responses to hurricanes throughout the Caribbean. The authors conduct meta-analyses that include 67 separate studies representing 286 Caribbean reef sites surveyed for variable periods of time between 1980 and 2001. Of these studies 177 of the sites experienced hurricanes during the monitoring period. Results of the analyses indicate that coral cover declines by as much as 17% during the year immediately following the hurricane. Decline is then typically temporarily halted and then continues to decline similar to or at a faster rate than background rates. Coral loss was also greater in areas that were less frequently impacted by hurricanes, while more frequently impacted areas likely did not have time to build up as much coral to begin with. The authors report no evidence of coral recovery following hurricanes or within a time period similar to hurricane frequency. Authors: Toby A. Gardner, Isabella M. Côté, Jennifer A. Gill, Alastair Grant, Andrew R. Watkinson. Ecology 86: 174-184

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