Summed coral cover along the four accessory transects in St. John from 1989 to 2017
Citable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10759As published
https://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset/750265Date Created
2018-11-28Location
USVIwestlimit: -64.723; southlimit: 18.32; eastlimit: -64.723; northlimit: 18.32
DOI
10.1575/1912/bco-dmo.750265.1Keyword
Coral; Caribbean; coral reef; LTREB; hurricanesAbstract
These files contain data that support an analysis of the effects of two major hurricanes on coral reefs that have been extensively studied for more than three decades. Major tropical storms are destructive phenomena with large effects on the community dynamics of multiple biomes. On coral reefs, their impacts have been described for decades, leading to the expectation that future storms should have effects similar to those recorded in the past. This expectation relies on the assumption that storm intensities will remain unchanged, and the impacted coral reef communities are similar to those of the recent past; neither assumption is correct. These data support a study quantifying the effects of two category five hurricanes on the reefs of St. John, US Virgin Islands, where 31 y of time-series analyses reveal chronic coral mortality, increasing macroalgal abundance, and five major hurricanes that caused acute coral mortality. Contextualized by these trends, the effects of the most recent storms, Hurricanes Irma and Maria (September 2017), on coral cover were modest. While mean absolute coral cover declined 1–4% depending on site, these effects were not statistically discernable. Following decades of increasing abundance of macroalgae, this functional group responded to the recent hurricanes with large increases in abundance on both absolute and relative scales. Decades of chronic mortality have changed the coral assemblages of St. John to create degraded communities that are resistant to severe storms. For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/750265
Description
Dataset: accessory transects
Suggested Citation
Dataset: Edmunds, Peter J., "Summed coral cover along the four accessory transects in St. John from 1989 to 2017", 2018-12-03, DOI:10.1575/1912/bco-dmo.750265.1, https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10759The following license files are associated with this item:
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Coral and algae cover, coral richness, and coral diversity from coral reef sites sampled by small boats in the Palauan archipelago from 2011-2013
Cohen, Anne L; de Putron, Samantha J.; Karnauskas, Kristopher; McCorkle, Daniel C; Tarrant, Ann M. (Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO). Contact: bco-dmo-data@whoi.edu, 2019-12-30)Average coral and algae cover, coral richness, and coral diversity from 8 coral reef sites in Palau. For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. ... -
The coral ecosphere: a unique coral reef habitat that fosters coral-microbial interactions
Weber, Laura; Gonzalez‐Díaz, Patricia; Armenteros, Maickel; Apprill, Amy (Wiley, 2019-05-21)Scleractinian corals are bathed in a sea of planktonic and particle‐associated microorganisms. The metabolic products of corals influence the growth and composition of microorganisms, but interactions between corals and ... -
Coral associated microbes on coral, sediment and water sampled from coral reefs in Mo'orea, French Polynesia in 2017 and 2018
Thurber, Andrew; Vega Thurber, Rebecca; Correa, Adrienne Simoes (Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO). Contact: bco-dmo-data@whoi.edu, 2021-04-23)Three species of coral, plus water and sediment, were sampled at 21 sites around the island of Mo’orea, French Polynesia during the dry and rainy seasons in 2017 and 2018. Coral associated microbes (bacteria and archaea) ...