MBF 602 seminar- Brooke Gintert Friday, April 16th, 2010 4:00pm S/A seminar room

[Cary Rios <crios@rsmas.miami.edu>]

Coral communities then and now: spatial patterns over thirty-five years

 

The spatial arrangement of benthic organisms on reefs can be essential to settlement, growth, competition, and survivorship. In light of significant declines in coral cover in recent decades the question of increased or decreased survivorship, growth, and recruitment of coral colonies with respect to their spatial arrangement within a reef is of critical importance to our understanding of present and future coral community dynamics.  Despite its importance, little is known about the spatial arrangement of corals on reefs, and links between recent declines in coral cover and spatial dynamics remain unexplored.    In association with the coral reef monitoring program at the U.S. Navy’s Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) at Andros Island, Bahamas historical maps of 10x10m reef areas and recent high resolution video mosaics have been used to document the spatial arrangement of coral species within five reef habitats over a 35 year period.  Using spatial cluster analysis techniques and 3D models of study sites we examined the changes of coral communities in two and three-dimensional space over the 35 year time period.   All five reef habitats showed significant clusters of both mortality and growth characteristics within the 10x10m areas.  In addition, four of the study sites showed non-proportional mortality of colonies in high relief areas since the 1970’s. The identification of non-random patterns of mortality and growth indicates that spatial arrangement is important to understanding  the mechanisms of change in coral communities and that the shape of future coral communities may depend largely on the structure and arrangement of current populations.    

 

Brooke Gintert

B.A. in Biology, Occidental College, 2003

Entered M.S. program Fall, 2003

Switched to PhD program Spring, 2004

Advisors: Dr.  Pamela Reid, and Dr. Diego Lirman

 

Cary Rios
Graduate Studies Office
University of Miami
Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science
4600 Rickenbacker Cswy
S/A 132
Miami, FL 33149
Locator Code: VK
P. 305.421.4920
F. 305.421.4771
http://www.rsmas.miami.edu
crios@rsmas.miami.edu

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