The results of long term coral reef monitoring at three locations in Jamaica: Monkey Island, “Gorgo City” and Southeast Cay
Resultados del monitoreo a largo plazo en los arrecifes de coral en tres lugares de Jamaica: Isla Monkey, "Ciudad Gorgo" y Cayo Sureste
Marcia Creary Ford1*, Loureene Jones Smith2* & Sean O. Green2
Abstract
The global and ]]>
Porites astreoides, Montastraea spp., Porites porities, Siderastrea siderea, and Agaricia agaricites were the most common species. Data from this programme have been used in local and regional coral reef assessment and management initiatives.
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Key words: Discovery Bay, Portland, Port Royal, Jamaica, video monitoring, coral reefs, long term monitoring, climate change.
Resumen
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Los impactos regionales y globales del cambio climático están teniendo consecuencias devastadoras en los ecosistemas de arrecifes de coral en el Caribe. Se establecieron monitoreos en el 2000 en Las Bahamas, Belice y Jamaica. Siguiendo el proyecto piloto, el programa se institucionalizó en Jamaica y el monitoreo se llevó a cabo en ocho ocasiones del 2000 al 2010. Se seleccionaron los sitios: Isla Monkey, “Ciudad Gorgo “ cerca de la Bahía Discovery (ambos en la costa norte) y el Cayo Sureste en el Puerto Royal en el sur de la ]]>
Porites astreoides, Montastraea spp, Porites porities, Siderastrea siderea, y Agaricia agaricites representan las especies de corales más frecuentes. Los datos de este programa se han utilizado en las ]]>
Palabras clave: Bahía Discovery, Portland, Puerto Royal, Jamaica, videovigilancia, arrecifes de coral, monitoreo a largo plazo, cambio climático
In 1992 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted the vulnerability of low-lying island states to the impacts of climate change, particularly as it relates to sea level rise and increased sea surface temperatures (IPCC, 1992). This report pointed out that coastal ecosystems and populated low lying coastal plains would experience the most severe impacts and went on to recommend that the identification and assessment of the potential risks to coastal areas, islands and coastal resources be undertaken. This growing concern about the vulnerability of the small ]]>
Component 5: The Coral Reef Monitoring for Climate Change Impact Programme was one of nine ]]>
Jamaica is located in the northern Caribbean and is the largest English speaking country in this region. The island has a fringing reef developed on a narrow shelf on the north ]]>
This paper presents the results of the coral reef monitoring programme implemented under the Component 5: ]]>
Materials and Methods
Site selection and description: The protocol for the selection of the Operational Areas was developed by Woodley in 1999 (Creary, 2001; Creary, 2006; Creary, Jones Smith & Green, 2012; Deeb, 2002) for each of the pilot countries (The Bahamas, Belize and Jamaica). Three reef sites were established in Jamaica, according to this protocol, to represent a gradient of anthropogenic impacts. These sites were Monkey Island (also known as Pellew Island) in the Parish of Portland (18o10’56”N, 76o47’5”W), “Gorgo City” near Discovery Bay in the Parish of St Ann (18o28’40N, 77o25’46”W) and Southeast Cay, one of the Port Royal Cays in the Parish of Kingston ]]>
Video monitoring: The location of the transects within the designated Operational Areas were randomly selected following the procedure outlined in the Draft Site Selection ]]>
Data processing and analysis: The resultant video tapes were checked for clarity, then numbered, catalogued and the content of each tape logged. Non-overlapping images were captured from the video tapes using a Sony™ Mini DV player connected to a computer loaded with the Pinnacle Studio™ software. ]]>
Results
Hard coral cover: Coral cover was generally low, falling below 15% at all three monitoring sites (
Table 1). Hard coral cover ranged from a low of 6.2% (SE±0.8) in 2002 to a high of 14.6% (SE±2.4) in 2010 at Monkey Island in Portland. Notwithstanding the gap in the monitoring between the years 2004-2006, hard coral cover showed a moderate increase from 12.2% (SE±2.4) in 2007 to 14.6% (SE±1.3) in 2010. For ‘Gorgo City” near Discovery Bay hard coral cover ranged from 5.9% (SE±1.2) in 2003 to 11.7% (SE±1.2) in 2010. This site also exhibited a slight increase in coral cover during the second ]]>
Fig. 1). Porites astreoides, Montastraea spp, Porites porities, Siderastrea siderea
, and Agaricia agaricites were the most commonly occurring coral species at Monkey Island and “Gorgo City” while P. astreoides and Montastraea spp were the common species at Southeast Cay. Macroalgae: The benthic substrate was dominated by macroalgae at all three monitoring sites (Table 2). At Monkey Island the macroalgal cover ranged from a low of 26.9% (SE±4.1) in 2001 to a high of 55.9% (SE±4.0) in 2003. However, macroalgal cover did not exceed 50% during the 2007-2010 ]]>
Fig. 2). Dictyota,
Lobophora and Sargassum were the macroalgal species commonly found at all three sites. Discussion
There is a vast body ]]>
The results presented here are of importance because they document the long term dynamics of three Jamaican reef ecosystems. For this monitoring programme coral reef health was assessed by looking at the relationship between hard coral and macroalgae. Coral cover at the two north coast sites (Monkey Island and “Gorgo City”) showed a small but gradual increase particularly for the period 2007-2010. In contrast, for the Southeast Cay site on the ]]>
Indications are that for the north coast sites coral cover is making a comeback and that macroalgae cover in remaining relatively stable. Crabbe (2011, 2012) in his studies ]]>
P. asteroides, P. porites and A. agaricites, aided by the increasing abundance of Diadema antillarum. These coral species are still an important component of the coral community on the ]]>
In 2005 widespread sea surface temperature anomalies were recorded throughout the Caribbean resulting ]]>
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When the monitoring programme was established to measure coral reef health it was expected that data obtained in 2000 would represent a baseline against which annual changes would be compared. For the period 2000-2010 monitoring was actually carried out in two four-year blocks (2000-2003 and 2007-2010) with a gap of three years (2004-2006). The sites selected were based on a gradient of anthropogenic impacts. Monkey Island was identified as being minimally impacted, “Gorgo City” moderately impacted and Southeast Cay severely impacted. The results for the period 2000-2010 ]]>
Although the objective of establishing a long term monitoring programme was to show the effects of global warming factors on coral reefs, this was not entirely achieved due the failure of Component 1of the CPACC project (the ]]>
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Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the inputs of the staff from National Environment and Planning Agency (formally the Natural Resources Conservation Authority) for the role they played in data collection, processing and analysis). Staff from various department of the University of the West Indies also played a ]]>
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1. Centre for Marine Sciences, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica W.I.; marcia.creary@uwimona.edu.jm.
2. National Environment and Planning Agency, 10-11 Caledonia Avenue, Kingston 5, Jamaica W.I.; ljones-smith@nepa.gov.jm, sgreen@nepa.gov.jm.
Received 25-X-2013 Corrected 18-III-2014 Accepted 02-IV-2014