[Coral-List] 27 year old data on Caribbean reefs

[Clive Wilkinson]

To the List

We present data on coral and other organism cover from 7 countries collected in 1986 and published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin.

Status of Caribbean Coral Reefs in Seven Countries in 1986 (ref: MPB5618);

Clive Wilkinson, Madeleine Nowak, Ian Miller,  Valonna Baker

Marine Pollution Bulletin 70 (2013), pp. 7-9 DOI information: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2013.02.040

Abstract:
There are few long-term datasets available to make reliable statements about trends in cover and structure in many coral reefs around the world. We present 27 year old summary data of the cover of corals and other biota on Caribbean and Western Atlantic coral reefs in 7 countries collected in late 1985 and early 1986. These data were collected to support research on sponge populations and show relatively low coral cover on many of these reefs with particularly low cover of Acropora spp. We present these summaries to encourage other researchers to compare with current conditions or repeat the surveys to show long-term trends; the raw data will be supplied on request.

The data were collected from 10 sites across the Caribbean: Belize, Puerto Rico (2), St Croix (3), Barbados, Jamaica, South Florida and Bahamas.

We thank the editor of 'Marine Pollution Bulletin' for making these summary data available for coral reef workers after the journal 'Coral Reefs' considered that these old data would be of no use, and refused publication.


Clive Wilkinson

Clive.wilkinson at rrrc.org.au