Status of the coral reefs in Foul and Folly Bays, Morant Wetlands, south-eastern Jamaica, with emphasis on corals and macroalgae
Denise A. Chin1*, Dale F.S. Webber1 & Mona K. Webber1 ]]>
Abstract
Foul and Folly Bays are located within the Morant Wetlands near the eastern tip of Jamaica. They have ]]>
Diadema antillarum was not observed at any station. Overall the status of the reefs was poor, probably due to overfishing, absence of urchins and the resultant algal proliferation. ]]>
Key words: Coral Reefs, Spatial Variation, Foul Bay, Folly Bay, Jamaica.
Resumen
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Las bahías Foul y Folly se encuentran dentro de los Humedales Morant cerca de la punta oriental de la isla de Jamaica. Estos dos bahías nunca han sido investigadas pero se cree que son áreas importantes para la productividad larvaria debido a la extensión de los hábitats bentónicos, ausencia de desarrollos importantes a lo largo de la costa y la ubicación remota de la zona. El estudio tuvo como objetivo proporcionar datos de referencia sobre la distribución espacial y el estado de los corales y del bentos asociado. Investigamos ]]>
Diadema antillarum en todas las estaciones dentro de los transectos. En general, el estado de los arrecifes era pobre, ]]>
Coral reefs are complex and diverse marine ecosystems (Woodley et al., 1981; Moberg & Folke, 1999). They offer many economic and environmental services including their natural beauty, recreation, food, jobs, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and shoreline protection (Moberg & Folke, 1999). Jamaica is the third largest island of the Caribbean and is said to be in the center of the coral diversity in the Atlantic Ocean (Hughes, 1994). In Jamaica, the effects of overfishing, hurricane damage, bleaching and disease have combined to destroy many reefs, evidenced by reduction in coral cover ]]>
There has been extensive research ]]>
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The study site was positioned on the south-eastern coast of Jamaica encompassing two bays (Foul Bay and Folly Bay). They are lined by an extensive mangrove forest which has been designated as a bird reserve since 1984. Beyond the mangrove forest the land use is primarily for sugar cane and a sugar cane factory is associated with the fields. Artisanal fishing is done within the bays and off-shore banks associated with the easternmost end of Jamaica, supports the fishing community (144 registered fishers and 21 registered vessels in 2010) of Rocky Point. Due to the prevailing east ]]>
Since this coral community has never been studied, this research sought to achieve the objectives of determining the composition and relative abundance of all living and non-living substrate types associated with the reef and to describe the spatial variation of corals and associated benthic organisms across ]]>
Materials and Methods
Coral surveys were conducted between 8:00a.m. and 12:00p.m. Sampling was done on four occasions: December 5, 2007; January 31, 2008; April 11, 2008 and November 21, ]]>
Fig. 1). Stations 1-7 were referred to as the shallow stations (<1-3m) and station 8 the deep station (~12m). A Garmin® GPSMAP® 76CSx was used (accuracy <10m 95% typically) to locate the station previously chosen and accessed by a fishing vessel. Once in the general area of the station, a reef was randomly ]]>
A camera framer with base dimensions of 0.75m x 0.5m was used to maintain the dimensions of each photo. The camera framer was constructed from 2cm cold water PVC (White & Porter, 1985). A Canon Power Shot G5 Digital camera housed in a waterproof casing was used to capture the contents of the frame. Pictures were taken along the entire length of the reef in the ]]>
Coral Point Count with Excel extensions (CPCe) version 3.5 software (Kohler & Gill, 2006) was used to analyze the photographs. Twenty randomly positioned dots were generated on each photograph. The substrate type overlain by each dot was identified using the categories listed in the software. Excel data sheets were produced using CPCe version 3.5 for statistical analysis. ]]>
Cumulative species richness curves were done for each transect at each station to ensure adequate sampling intensity. The percentage cover of all species and substrates associated with the reef were log transformed (Sokal & Rohlf, 1981) and normality confirmed using Shapiro-Wilks W- test. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA, p= 0.05), tests were done to indicate whether ]]>
Results
The spatially dominant substrates ]]>
Porites asteroides, Porites porites, Dictyota sp., Sargassum sp., Turbinaria sp., and Halimeda spp. These were all found to vary significantly (ANOVA, p≤0.01) across stations.
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Coral distribution: 17 species of corals were identified including Millepora complanata and Millepora alcicornis, M. complanata and M. alcicornis, though not true corals, were grouped with the true corals as they are important cnidarians on the reef. Corals were identified from all stations except for station five (17°52’27.07”N-76°14’9.78”W). The 17 coral species identified were not equally distributed across all stations as stations ]]>
Fig. 2). The highest mean percentage cover was noted at station eight (17°52’25.43”N-76°16’23.45”W) with 27.03%. Station five had the lowest mean percentage cover (0%) of coral. Stations one to four located within Folly Bay had a coral percentage cover values of <7%. In Foul Bay (stations five to eight) there was a dramatic increase in coral cover with progression from station five to station eight. The total coral percentage cover was significantly different across ]]>
Foul Bay had the higher coverage of P. asteroides with station eight having the highest percentage cover. ]]>
P. porites was very low with the highest mean percentage cover being 3.17% at station two and the lowest at stations five (0%) and six (0%). A. agaricites was found only at stations one, three, four, seven and eight. Station eight had the highest mean percentage cover of 23.2%.
Algal cover: Macro-algae was the dominant benthic substrate across all stations and showed significant spatial variation (ANOVA, p= 0.005). The highest mean percentage cover was seen at station six (75.4%) and lowest (8.52%) at station four (Fig. 3). However, in Folly Bay (stations one to four), macroalgae gradually decreased with progression from station one to four. Between the two bays, Foul Bay had the higher percentage cover of macroalgae. There was no gradual decrease in Foul Bay (stations five to eight), as was seen in Folly Bay. ]]>
The algal groups examined (Dictyota sp., Sargassum sp., Turbinaria sp. and Halimeda spp.) varied significantly (ANOVA, p≤0.01) across the stations. The more fleshy algae dominated in the shallow areas of Foul and Folly Bays while the calcareous algae (Halimeda spp.) tended to be high at station 8. It ]]>
Diadema antillarum were observed along the transects.
Dead coral with algae (DCA): The category DCA was found at all stations with a percent coverage ranging from 15.19-83.86% (Fig. 4). ]]>
Gorgonians (soft corals): All stations except for stations five and six had gorgonians present. Station two (11.46%) had the highest percentage of gorgonians while stations five and six had the lowest (0%). Folly Bay had a higher percentage of gorgonians than Foul Bay. Gorgonians were significantly different across stations (ANOVA, p<0.01).
Diversity: Shannon-Weaver Index (H’) diversity across the stations (Fig. 5) ranged from zero at station five (no coral species were found) to 0.34 at station eight. There was no clear trend for stations one to four (Folly Bay). Foul Bay (stations five to eight) however, demonstrated a trend of increasing coral species diversity from station six to eight.
Discussion
Location and extent of the coral reef system: The coral reef system studied across the Morant Wetlands bays was situated at the southeastern tip of Jamaica and as such, the area is exposed to the open waters of the Caribbean Sea. The coral reef area, which runs parallel to the shoreline, spanned approximately 7km ]]>
This study suggests that the reef system was of a patchy barrier reef type with channels along the ]]>
Composition and relative abundance of coral species: The seventeen hermatypic coral species found in the Morant Wetlands bays included species previously reported from the ]]>
Circulation patterns with very high current speeds (Wilmot, 2010) found within Foul and Folly Bays appear to be unfavorable for coral recruitment (Lugo-Fernandez, 2001; Blanco-Martin, 2006) especially in the shallow algal dominated areas. ]]>
M. annularis, M. cavernosa and Diploria strigosa.
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As expected, diversity and coral cover showed a positive correlation with progression from shallow stations to the deeper station eight (Porter, 1974). While the coral cover at station eight was much higher than average, by comparison the average coral cover of the Morant Wetlands was found to be 20% of the average coral cover found at Lime Cay, another south coast area (McNaught, 2007) .
Composition of other living and non-living substrate types: The rock-like pavement which would represent the fore-reef area seen across stations one to seven was thought to have been a part of what was a healthy, continuous barrier reef system as seen in older maps. The presence of this rock-like pavement was one of the reasons for sampling parallel to the shoreline.
The Morant Wetlands, now dominated ]]>
Sargassum, Dictyota and Turbinaria) in the shallow areas (Hudson, 1985) and the calcareous algae Halimeda being most abundant at station eight (deep ]]>
The absence of Diadema antillarum and Echinometra lucunter would further support the high abundance of algae (Sammarco, 1982). This observation was somewhat similar to Byrd’s ]]>
D. antillarum (Clemente & Hernandez, 2008; Alves, et al., 2001). Sponges had a positive correlation with coral cover; this trend was observed on other reefs such as Curacao, Santa Maria and N.E. Colombia with mean sponge cover below 25% (Aerts, 1998).
This study provides ]]>
Acknowledgments
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This project was funded by The Environmental Foundation of Jamaica. Thanks to the team in Rocky Point, St. Thomas, Judith Mendes, Alison Foster, Nicole Harris, Inilek Wilmot, Marsha Robinson who assisted with sampling and also contributed their expertise and knowledge.
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1. Department of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston 7, Jamaica, W.I.; mona.webber@uwimona.edu.jm
Received 16-X-2013 Corrected 05-II-2014 Accepted 24-III-2014
