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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Artículo científico |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
Marine environmental research
2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40609247/ |
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Table of Contents:
- No-take area status is not sufficient to protect the population of a reef-building coral in Barbados. Vallès, Henri Tovar, Irene Amaya Mathieu, Paule Millien, Virginie Animals Anthozoa Coral Reefs Barbados Conservation of Natural Resources Population Density Environmental Monitoring Population Dynamics Coral reefs are undergoing rapid degradation due to global and local anthropogenic stressors. Mitigating local stressors through the establishment of no-take areas could help coral populations withstand global ones. Here, we first assess changes over a quarter century period (1997-2023) in coral colony size-structure, density, and distribution of an important Caribbean reef builder, the massive starlet coral Siderastrea siderea, inside the only no-take area of Barbados (West Indies). We then seek to establish a 2023 population baseline for this species to assess future change, including describing coral colony size-structure as well as spatial variation in key population attributes such as colony density, size, and partial mortality. During June-Aug 2023, we counted and measured S. siderea colonies on 49 100-m2 quadrats on a fringing reef inside the Barbados Marine Reserve (0.5-7 m deep). We compared these data with similarly collected data from 1997. The 2023 data revealed a population now virtually depleted of medium-to-large (diameter>50 cm) colonies (5 % of the population) compared to 1997 (47 %). The population had also dropped in colony density by approximately 25 %. Colony size and density increased with depth, whereas colony partial mortality increased with colony size but was not related to depth. The dramatic colony size-structure shift and decrease in colony density of S. siderea, despite being in an effectively protected no-take area, raises concerns about the long-term persistence of this important coral species in Barbados.