Southeast Florida Reef Fish Spawning Aggregations - Addressing Ecosystem Management Information Needs
Identifying and managing reef fish spawning aggregations and multi-species aggregation sites continue to rise to a top priority for fisheries and ecosystem management goals in southeast Florida. This project builds upon the success of the National Centers...
Characterizing interactions between LBSP, coral growth, and herbivory to set targets for coastal runoff
Sediment laden runoff inhibits coral growth through smothering and light reduction and is a primary cause of reef decline and shifts from coral- to algal- dominance. Surprisingly however, there are no guidelines for sediment runoff in Hawaii or globally. ...
Scaling up coral reef science through Photogrammetry and Artificial Intelligence
The primary goal of this project is to continue assessing how well photogrammetry (also known as Structure-from-Motion or SfM) can be used to improve our understanding of coral reef demographics and vital rates from colony to habitat-scale across the US P...
Predicting fertilization compatibility for selecting brood stocks of Acropora palmata
A high restoration priority is to develop knowledge and tools that will enable the selection of brood stock for propagation efforts that can yield the most efficient and successful offspring. A now-demonstrated factor that challenges reproductive success ...
Develop and test innovative solutions for assessing reef communities and benthic processes using Structure from Motion.
The primary goal of this project is to assess how well photogrammetry (also known as Structure-from-Motion) can be used to improve our understanding of coral reef demographics and vital rates from colony to habitat-scale. This project builds out the innov...
Seeding reefs with Diadema antillarum to enhance coral recovery in Puerto Rico
Over the past three decades, coral reefs in the Caribbean have suffered massive declines due to cumulative factors such as hurricanes, disease outbreaks, bleaching, pollution, and overfishing. Many reefs in the Caribbean have lost their capacity to recove...
Assessing Futiga Dump Site Impacts on Fagatele Bay (National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa)
There is currently minimal data describing the level of contamination in Fagatele Bay, a unit of the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa. Resource managers have concerns about the potential inputs of contaminants from a landfill upslope from the B...
Elucidating the recipe for coral reef resilience in the Florida Keys
Coral reefs along the Florida Keys portion of the Florida Reef Tract (FRT) have undergone a dramatic decline since the 1980s. Since the 1997-98 El Niño event, coral cover on offshore reefs of the FRT has been = 5% and continued to decline. Mortality of th...
Investigating Reproductive Failure in Populations of ESA Coral: Acropora palmata
Reproductive failure in Caribbean corals has been identified as a critical factor contributing to the threatened status of the Acropora spp. and 5 new species and preventing their recovery and delisting from ESA. This proposal is based on findings that as...
Southeast Florida Reef Fish Spawning Aggregations - Addressing Ecosystem Management Information Needs