Developing A Benthic Habitat Map for the South Eastern Puerto Rican Shelf
The purpose of this project is to develop a benthic habitat map for uncharacterized areas between 30-100 m in depth on the South Eastern Puerto Rican Shelf to support the improvement of fisheries, and the management of essential fish habitats, MPAs, and p...
Determination of fertilization, larval survivorship and competency period for ESA broadcasting corals
Understanding of early life history, recruitment limitations and population enhancement of ESA listed corals are Recovery Actions in the Acropora Recovery Plan and priorities listed in the 2016 CRCP rfp. This proposal addresses this need for Caribbean lis...
Enhancing Management Tools: Molecular Genetic Tracking to Target Microbial Pollution Sources in South Florida Coral Reefs
Both coastal inlets and treated wastewater outfalls are recognized as major pathways for microbial contaminants from Land-Based Sources of Pollution (LBSP) to enter Florida’s Southeastern coastal marine ecosystems (CRCP FY12 RFP, p.15), including an area ...
Assessing status and location of reef fish spawning aggregations in the SEFCRI region
Reef fish spawning aggregations (FSAs) are a vital part of the life cycle of many reef fishes. Unfortunately, the act of aggregating makes these species particularly vulnerable to overfishing. The protection and conservation of FSAs is critical to the sus...
Investigating How Coral Recruitment and Juvenile Survivorship Varies Along the Florida Reef Tract
Populations of reef-building corals have not recovered significantly in Florida even though management actions focused on achieving this goal have escalated over the last several decades. There is a general consensus among scientists that recruitment fail...
Identifying LBSP management options: Quantifying the contribution of upwelling to LBSP on SE Florida reefs by sub-watershed
Background: South Florida is host to the third largest coral reef ecosystem in the world, as well as more than five million inhabitants (2010 US Census) and approximately 30 million overnight visitors per annum (Sun-Sentinel, May 09, 2012). Need: A critic...
Assessing reef fish population recovery, SPAGs and lionfish impacts on prey and predator communities in the TER.
We continue monitoring (since 2003) of snapper grouper populations in the TER for a final two years. While we have observed recovery of spawning aggregations (SPAGs) of mutton snapper, knowledge of site fidelity of SPAGs is limited and continued data coll...
Developing A Benthic Habitat Map for the South Eastern Puerto Rican Shelf