[Coral-List] Amazing coral cover!

Dennis Hubbard dennis.hubbard at oberlin.edu
Tue Feb 2 09:30:10 EST 2016


Joe:

Impressive cover indeed. Lisa Greer is working on a reef in Belize that is
similarly robust but likewise not particularly diverse in its shallower
portions. The deeper sites look like a number I've seen (lots of *Madracis*
coming in) and are still good news.

It is interesting that the shallower reef seems to be *mostly** A.
cervicornis* and *Agaricia tenufolia* (or whatever we are agreeing to call
it these days). If I remember the story correctly, the excellent Aronson
and Precht papers from years back described them as different reef states.
That aside, neither species is a major reef builder except in the western
Caribbean or protected bays where wave energy is low enough to allow them
to accumulate. But.... they'll make a lot of good sediment if it's not all
exported by increasing storminess. It would be very interesting to look at
the stratigraphy of this reef to see whether it has been like this for a
long time or if this is something new. It has been my experience that these
are often opportunist species (I'd say "weedy" except for the connotation
that "weeds are bad").

Thanks for the video. It will be a nice break from the "gloom and doom"
that increasingly dominates my *Coral Reefs* course.

Best,

Dennis

On Mon, Feb 1, 2016 at 8:28 AM, Pawlik, Joseph <pawlikj at uncw.edu> wrote:

> Greetings, coral-listers,
>
> I've just posted a video dive survey of Cordelia Banks, just off the south
> coast of Roatan, Honduras:
> https://youtu.be/FHcUmUry8Vk
>
> This site has amazing coral cover for a contemporary Caribbean reef -
> anyone know of other Caribbean sites that still look like this?
> More surprising is that this site is just a few km from Coxen Hole, the
> largest town on Roatan, just off the coast of the airport, and very close
> to the transit channel for the harbor and cruise ship port.
>
> For those of you studying coral resiliency, I would think this site would
> be worth sampling.
>
> Enjoy the video,
>
> Joe
>
> **************************************************************
> Joseph R. Pawlik, Professor,
> Dept. of Biology and Marine Biology
> UNCW Center for Marine Science
> 5600 Marvin K Moss Lane
> Wilmington, NC  28409
> Office:(910)962-2377; Cell:(910)232-3579
> Website: http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/index.html
> PDFs: http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/pubs2.html
> Video Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/skndiver011
> **************************************************************
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>



-- 
Dennis Hubbard
Chair, Dept of Geology-Oberlin College Oberlin OH 44074
(440) 775-8346

* "When you get on the wrong train.... every stop is the wrong stop"*
 Benjamin Stein: "*Ludes, A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream*"


More information about the Coral-List mailing list