Abstract
The once-dominant shallow reef-building coral Acropora palmata has suffered drastic geographical declines in the wider Caribbean from a disease epidemic that began in the late 1970s. At present there is a lack of quantitative data to determine whether this species is recovering over large spatial scales. Here, we use quantitative surveys conducted in 107 shallow-water reef sites between 2010 and 2012 to investigate the current distribution and abundance of A. palmata along the Mesoamerican Reef System (MRS). Using historical data we also explored how the distribution and abundance of this species has changed in the northern portion of the MRS between 1985 and 2010–2012. A. palmata was recorded in only a fifth of the surveyed reef sites in 2010–2012. In the majority of these reef sites the presence of A. palmata was patchy and rare. Only one site (Limones reef), in the northernmost portion of the MRS, presented considerably high A. palmata cover (mean: 34.7%, SD: 24.5%). At this site, the size-frequency distribution of A. palmata colonies was skewed towards small colony sizes; 84% of the colonies were healthy, however disease prevalence increased with colony size. A comparison with historical data showed that in the northern portion of the MRS, in 1985, A. palmata occurred in 74% of the 31 surveyed sites and had a mean cover of 7.7% (SD = 9.0), whereas in 2010–2012 this species was recorded in 48% of the sites with a mean cover of 2.9% (SD = 7.5). A. palmata populations along the MRS are failing to recover the distribution and abundance they had prior to the 1980s. Investigating the biological (e.g., population genetics) and environmental conditions (e.g., sources of stress) of the few standing reefs with relatively high A. palmata cover is crucial for the development of informed restoration models for this species.
Highlights
Acropora palmata (Lamarck, 1816) was a dominant reef-building coral in wave-exposed and high-surge reef zones, typically at depths less than 10 m, both in terms of its abundance and its contribution to reef accretion rates [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Mesoamerican Reef System Regional Survey (2010–2012) In 2010–2012, A. palmata was recorded in 21 of the 107 reef sites surveyed along the MRS, ten of these reef sites were in Mexico, seven in Honduras, and four in Belize; A. palmata was not recorded in the only site surveyed in Guatemala (Fig. 1a)
The occurrence of A. palmata was only recorded in 5.8% of the 685 transects carried out in the MRS, with the northern section of the region showing a relatively higher occurrence of this species: 55% of the transects with A. palmata were recorded in Mexico, 20% in Belize and 25% in Honduras (Tables 1 and S1)
Summary
Acropora palmata (Lamarck, 1816) was a dominant reef-building coral in wave-exposed and high-surge reef zones, typically at depths less than 10 m, both in terms of its abundance and its contribution to reef accretion rates [1,2,3,4,5,6]. High growth rate, asexual reproduction through fragmentation and efficient recuperation from lesions, allowed this species to recover relatively quickly after the impact of hurricanes and other physical stressors and made it a successful competitor as well as a functionally important component of Caribbean reefs [7]. This once-abundant and architecturally complex species provided habitat to many species [8,9] and served as a natural barrier that dissipated wave and current energy reaching other coastal ecosystems [7]. A. palmata is listed as a critically endangered species under the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List [17,25], it is listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Appendix II, it has been
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