A synthesis of coral reef research at Buck Island Reef National Monument and Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands: 1961 to 2022

Abstract

This synthesis focuses on the history of research on coral reefs within two U.S. National Park Service units in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands: Buck Island Reef National Monument (from 1961 to 2022) and Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve (from 1980 to 2022). Buck Island Reef National Monument (BUIS) is off the north shore of the island of St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Established in 1961 and expanded in 2001, it is under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service (NPS). Long-term monitoring programs maintained by the NPS and jointly by the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) and the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources (VIDPNR) provide data on trends in living coral cover and specific coral species from 2000 and 2001, respectively. Disease, thermal stress (indicated by coral bleaching), and hurricanes reduced total coral cover periodically, but cover remained relatively stable from 2007 through the end of 2020. Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve (SARI) is a national park on the north shore of the island of St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Established in 1992, it is co-managed by the NPS and the Government of the Virgin Islands. Long-term monitoring programs maintained by the NPS and by the UVI with the VIDPNR provide data on trends in living coral cover and individual coral species from 2011 and 2001, respectively. In spite of thermal stress (indicated by coral bleaching), disease, and hurricanes, total coral cover remained relatively stable through the end of 2020. This document also includes results from extensive investigations by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and from many individual projects including those based out of the underwater saturation habitats Hydrolab and Aquarius from 1977 to 1989, as well as studies from researchers at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s West Indies Laboratory. While not possible to review all of these in detail, this report highlights information considered useful to managers, and scientists planning future research. In 2021, a particularly virulent disease called stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), first noted in 2014 in Florida, and then in 2019 in the U.S. Virgin Islands, started killing corals in BUIS and SARI with the different species showing a gradient of susceptibility. An exact cause or link between this disease and human actions has not been discovered to date. The losses associated with this disease have now exceeded those from any other stressors in these national parks.