Walker, Brian K.; Brunelle, Alysha

Southeast Florida large (>2 m) ESA threatened coral colony disease impact assessment

2020

Nova Southeastern University; NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program

"Inventorying the Southeast Florida (SE FL) large coral population and understanding how they were affected by stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) was critical to the management of the oldest and most resilient coral demographic in the SE FL coral reef ecosystem. Temporal assessments allow the identification of resilient individuals that recover from bleaching events and/or that are resistant to disease during the SCTLD epidemic. These resilient corals might give clues to the ability of certain corals to recover from adversity and help in the restoration of the species across the reef tract. Further, large coral colonies are more fecund, giving an exponentially increased amount of reproductive output also making these colonies particularly important in the species recovery. Recognizing the importance of this population, NOAA funded this work to assess the condition of the known large coral population to understand the impact of SCTLD and to recon additional targets that had not been assessed to build the large coral inventory. This report documents those activities."

Florida reef tract, ESA corals, large corals, coral bleaching, coral disease, stony coral tissue loss disease

NOS

OCM

FY2017; Domestic Cooperative Agreement NA17NOS4820087.

NA17NOS4820087