Distribution and status of living colonies of<i>Acropora</i>spp. in the reef crests of a protected marine area of the Caribbean (Jardines de la Reina National Park, Cuba)

Hernández-Fernández, Leslie; Zayas, Roberto González–De; Olivera, Yunier; Amargós, Fabián Piña; López, Claudia Bustamante; Sotolongo, Lisadys B. Dulce; Bretos, Fernando; Martín, Tamara Figueredo; Cabrera, Dayli Lladó; Moret, Francisco Salmón

doi:10.7717/peerj.6470

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The evidence of an environmental gradient is conflictive so far and depends on the measured communities and sampled biotopes. For instance, Hernández-Fernández et al (2019) found differences in the abundances of A. palmata populations between west and east sectors of the reef system. Pina-Amargós et al (2008a) reported the homogeneity of community structure in fore and crest reefs using an analysis that split the system into zones according to the protection regime (i.e., non-reserve and reserve) and reef configuration (i.e., west-east).…”

Section: Cover and Diversity Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small-Scale Variability Dominates Benthic Coverage and Diversity Across the Jardines de La Reina, Cuba Coral Reef System

Hernández-Fernández

Zayas²,

Weber

et al. 2019

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Coral reefs are complex and biodiverse ecosystems that are undergoing significant change. Understanding reef composition and biodiversity at multiple spatial scales is necessary to track both large-scale and more subtle ecosystem changes. The Jardines de la Reina (JR) archipelago, located offshore of the island of Cuba, contains the largest marine protected area (MPA) in the Caribbean Sea but lacks multi-scale studies. In this contribution, we documented the diversity of scleractinian corals, octocorals, algae, and sponges across nested spatial scales spanning four orders of magnitude (10 1-10 5 m). In addition, we tested the hypothesis that species diversity followed a gradient along the ca. 200 km of reef tract. Across the archipelago, we examined benthic cover and species diversity within 255 photo-quadrats (25 × 25 cm) at 13 fore reef sites (two sampling locations per site, and 10 photo-quadrats per location). Small-scale (10 1 m) variability between photo-quadrats characterized the coral reef community structure in JR compared with local-(10 2 m) and mesoscale (10 4-10 5 m) variability. This finding suggests that biological processes (e.g., recruitment, competition) had primacy over hydrodynamics for driving the differences in reef community composition. However, the dominance of algae and low cover and diversity of scleractinian corals suggests the pervasive effects of global change on coral communities despite potential benefits provided by the MPA (e.g., oligotrophy and abundance of herbivores). There was no gradient of benthic community structure along the fore reef tract of JR; instead, a patchy distribution occurred in response to more subtle drivers acting at local scales. Overall, our multi-scale comparison was useful for differentiating the impacts of processes potentially impacting the JR reefs, thus providing important information to understand how reef communities are impacted by different environmental and anthropogenic stressors, and the potential benefits of MPAs.

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Section: Cover and Diversity Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small-Scale Variability Dominates Benthic Coverage and Diversity Across the Jardines de La Reina, Cuba Coral Reef System

Hernández-Fernández

Zayas²,

Weber

et al. 2019

Front. Mar. Sci.

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“…Wild hybrid colonies have been found in greater abundance and in better health than their parental counterparts at some Caribbean sites (Fogarty, 2012;Hernández-Fernández et al, 2019;Nylander-Asplin et al, 2021). In surveys across the Caribbean, hybrid disease prevalence was equivalent to A. palmata and less than A. cervicornis (Fogarty, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should Hybrids Be Used in Coral Nurseries? A Case Study Comparing Caribbean Acropora spp. and Their Hybrid in the Bahamas

et al. 2021

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For decades, coral reef ecosystems have been in decline due to environmental stressors such as rising sea temperatures, increased disease prevalence, and other local anthropogenic sources. Considering this decline, coral restoration efforts in the Caribbean have been implemented to promote reef recovery with a focus on the coral genus Acropora. Current methods target the threatened species Acropora cervicornis and A. palmata, but little is known about the restoration potential of their hybrid taxon, A. prolifera. Using interspecific hybrids with higher fitness than one or both parental species has gained traction as a novel restoration technique. For this study, three in situ coral tree nurseries were established around Great Stirrup Cay, The Bahamas, to compare the growth and survival among acroporid taxa. Three 150 mm fragments from six putative genotypes of each acroporid taxa were collected from reefs around New Providence, The Bahamas, and transported to Great Stirrup Cay in June 2018. One fragment from each genotype was transported to each nursery site, cut into three sections (apical, middle, and basal), and suspended from PVC coral trees. Fragment survival was collected monthly for 13 months, and Total Linear Extension (TLE) values were calculated for each fragment monthly for 12 months. Nursery site significantly affected fragment survival, while taxon and fragment section did not. Total fragment mortality was 29.3% in the first month but ranged from 0 to 5% for the rest of the study period until July 2019 (32.7% of remaining fragments died primarily at N1). Overall, A. prolifera growth was significantly greater than the parental species. Taxon, nursery site, and fragment section were identified as important factors affecting TLE. Apical A. prolifera fragment sections at site N3 had the greatest average linear growth at 12 months and had the greatest average growth rate per month. This study highlights the rapid growth rate of hybrid corals and suggests that fragment sections have equivalent survival and growth. Consequently, these results suggest that restoration managers may capitalize on fast growing hybrids for outplanting to degraded reefs and to increase the scale of nursery projects.

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“…Además, se determinó el comportamiento de estos indicadores ecológicos para los restantes 52 sitios por zonas de la reserva (ZR) por años (2001, 2012 y 2017). Las ZR han sido establecidas en el PNJR en otros estudios (Pina-Amargós et al, 2008;Pina-Amargós et al, 2014;Hernández-Fernández et al, 2019a, 2019b) (figura 1).…”

Section: Materiales Y Métodosunclassified

“…En el Parque Nacional Jardines de la Reina (PNJR), una de las AMPs más importantes de Cuba (Perera-Valderrama et al, 2018), se han realizado estudios sobre la comunidad de corales (Hernández-Fernández et al, 2016a;2016b;2019a;2019b;2019c), en los que se ha empleado la escala para la clasificación y puntaje de condición del bentos e ictiofauna de arrecifes coralinos de Cuba y del Gran Caribe (Alcolado y Durán, 2011). Los resultados, sobre dicha escala, no han mostrado una condición favorable para esta comunidad, en la mayoría de los indicadores ecológicos analizados (densidad de corales, MA y MR, número de especies, cobertura), específicamente, para las crestas de arrecifes (Hernández-Fernández et al, 2016a), para algunos sitios de buceo (Hernández-Fernández et al, 2016b), y para zonas de la reserva dentro del parque nacional (Hernández-Fernández et al, 2019a), a pesar de estar considerada entre las AMPs menos dañadas del Caribe (Linton et al, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Escala de clasificación y puntaje para la evaluación de las condiciones de salud de la comunidad de corales del Parque Nacional Jardines de la Reina, Cuba

Hernández-Fernández¹

2021

Intropica

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Para conocer el estado de salud de los arrecifes se han creado protocolos que permiten evaluar indicadores ecológicos sobre grupos focales de organismos que habitan en ellos. En este estudio se propone una escala específica, de clasificación y puntaje de condición de salud, para seis indicadores ecológicos (densidad, número de especies por transecto, cobertura, muerte antigua, muerte reciente y densidad de reclutas) de la comunidad de corales del Parque Nacional Jardines de la Reina. Se estudiaron 29 sitios de buceo autónomo SCUBA, situados en escarpes poco profundos y designados como sitios de referencia, que fueron comparados con otros 52 sitios no utilizados para el buceo. También se estudiaron 27 crestas de arrecifes, usando como sitio de referencia la más conservada del área de estudio (La Puntica). Se aplicó la prueba no paramétrica de Kruskal Wallis y se realizó un análisis de frecuencia a través del programa Statistica 7. Para los indicadores ecológicos evaluados se propusieron cambios en la escala específica, con respecto a la sugerida para Cuba y el Gran Caribe, adecuando los niveles de la nueva escala a valores obtenidos en un análisis integral y teniendo en cuenta, fundamentalmente, los sitios de referencia. Con una condición de “Muy buena”, se clasificó la densidad con valores >20 colonias 10 m-1 en escarpes y >14 colonias 10 m-1 en crestas. El número de especies, >10 en escarpes y ≥6 en crestas. La cobertura >30 % para ambos hábitats. Muerte antigua ≤10 % para ambos hábitats. Mortalidad reciente, ≤1 % para ambos hábitats. Densidad poblacional de reclutas, >20 reclutas m-2 en escarpes y >10 reclutas m-2 en crestas. Se recomienda la creación de una escala específica de clasificación y puntaje para la condición de salud en cada AMPs, que permitiría realizar acciones de manejo acorde a características intrínsecas de sus arrecifes coralinos.

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Distribution and status of living colonies ofAcroporaspp. in the reef crests of a protected marine area of the Caribbean (Jardines de la Reina National Park, Cuba)

Cited by 11 publications

References 38 publications

Small-Scale Variability Dominates Benthic Coverage and Diversity Across the Jardines de La Reina, Cuba Coral Reef System

Small-Scale Variability Dominates Benthic Coverage and Diversity Across the Jardines de La Reina, Cuba Coral Reef System

Should Hybrids Be Used in Coral Nurseries? A Case Study Comparing Caribbean Acropora spp. and Their Hybrid in the Bahamas

Escala de clasificación y puntaje para la evaluación de las condiciones de salud de la comunidad de corales del Parque Nacional Jardines de la Reina, Cuba

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