[Coral-List] sad demise of the mesophotic plate coral fields in Jamaica

Mon Nov 28 13:49:22 UTC 2022

Dear Listers,
 Following up on Judy Lang's comments about the Jamaican North Coast:
Between 2013 and 2018 I dove the fore reef slope of Discovery Bay  on
multiple occasions.
While the photographs speak for themselves (
https://biospherefoundation.org/project/coral-reef-change/), the reefs have
pretty much lost their ecologica; integrity. You may want to argue about
what that means, but to me the stony corals are no longer contributing to
reef building. The robust Orbicella  skeletons are still in
growth position, most of the Agaricias are gone, and almost all are being
overgrown by algae- macro and micro. The smaller infilling species are also
vanishing under an algal carpet. Corals that remain alive are coping with
white plague and other diseases.......
When I arrived at DBML in the fall of 2013, everyone at the lab thought the
fore reef slope was still in good shape, but that was because no one had
dived there in years because it was too deep to visit so we have no record
of when it began to change. Change was probably slower due to light
limitation and, for sure, any sort of "recovery" will be much slower too,
if at all possible.
 Phil

On Mon, Nov 28, 2022 at 7:59 AM Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> I saw the foliose fields of Agaricia undata at Dairy Bull, just east of
> Discovery Bay, Jamaica when we dove it in February, 1991, and all that I
> saw was healthy.  We did not dive the pinnacles so I cannot speak to them.
> However, the deep Agaricia fields of Dairy Bull were clearly not killed by
> Hurricane Allen in 1980, unless they recovered completely, which in 10
> years is not out of the question, though at that depth they might grow
> slower (?). If they were damaged and recovered, then they have been killed
> again.  There may well be someone else who dove them between 1980 and 2017
> who can add to this.  I'd be surprised if no one else dove any of those
> deep foliose beds during that period.  Anybody else dive them between 1980
> and 2017?
>
> On Sun, Nov 27, 2022 at 7:16 PM Paul Muir <paularwen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > The DRR is pretty out of favour these days, but the "slightly deep reef
> > refuge" is very promising and largely uncharted.  Depths 25-40m hold a
> > large proportion of the shallow-water species (at least in the Northern
> > GBR), may be genetically similar to shallow pops and appear to be quite
> > protected from mass bleaching (at least in the Maldives in 2016) and
> > perhaps somewhat from tropical storms. But frustratingly, very little
> data
> > on this widespread potential natural refuge - which of course fuels
> furious
> > debate!
> >
> > BTW is there some suggestion that the hurricane was responsible for the
> > decline of those deep corals- it's hard enough to pin down the causes of
> > mass mortality in the shallow reef, let alone the mesophotic...
> >
> > PAUL MUIR
> > Independent Consultant
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 28 Nov 2022 at 03:05, Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <
> > coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> >
> >> Some years after Hurricane Allen I got to see the glorious field of
> >> Agaricia undata in the upper mesophotic at Discovery Bay, Jamaica.  At
> >> that
> >> time corals on the upper and mid-slope were long gone, starting in 1980
> >> with Hurricane Allen, but these deep plates, a big monospecific stand,
> >> were
> >> doing fine.
> >>       Now, sadly, I find out that they are now mostly dead.  This
> doesn't
> >> bode well for the deep refuge hypothesis, it seems.  Not only were they
> >> killed, but the same species is not present in shallow water.
> >>
> >> Two papers:
> >>
> >> Dustin, P., Chapentier, B. H., Wheeler, L., and Lang, J. C. 2018. A
> short
> >> report on the changing ecology of the Pinnacle Reefs of Discovery Bay,
> >> Jamaica; 1970’s to 2018. Pp. 23-31 in Gochfeld, D.J. and Herrlinger,
> T.J.
> >> (Eds.), *Diving for Science** 2018:Proceedings of the American Academy
> of
> >> Underwater Sciences 37th** Symposium.*
> >>
> >>
> >> Dustin, P. and Lang, J. 2019. Discovery Bay, Jamaica. Pp. 85-109 in
> Loya,
> >> Y., Puglise, K. A., and Bridge, T. L. (eds.), *Mesophotic Ecosystems*.
> >> Springer.
> >>
> >> More papers:
> >>
> >>
> >> Motti, C. A., Cummins, S. F., and Hall, M. R. 2022. A review of the
> Giant
> >> Triton  (*Charonia tritonis*), from exploitation to coral reef
> >> protector? *Diversity
> >> *14(11): 961.
> >>
> >>
> >> Radice, V. Z., Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Fry, B., Fox, M. D., and Dove, S. G.
> >> 2019. Upwelling as the major source of nitrogen for shallow and deep
> >> reef-building corals across and oceanic atoll system. *Functional
> Ecology*
> >> 33: 1120-1134.
> >>
> >>
> >> Rocha L. A., Pinheiro, H. T., Shepherd, B., Papastamatiou, Y. P., Luiz,
> O.
> >> J., Pyle, R. L., and Bongaerts, P. 2018. Mesophotic coral ecosystems are
> >> threatened and ecologically distinct from shallow water reefs. *Science*
> >> 361: 281-284.
> >>
> >>
> >> Streit, R. P., Cumming, G. S., and Bellwood, D. R. 2019. Patchy delivery
> >> of
> >> functions undermines functional diversity in a high diversity system.
> >> *Functional
> >> Ecology* 33: 1144-1155.
> >>
> >>
> >> Traylor-Knowles, N., Baker, A. C., Beavers, K. M., Garg, N., Guyon, J.
> R.,
> >> Hawthorn, A., MacKnight, N. J., Medina, M., Mydlarz, L. D., Peters, E.
> C.,
> >> et al. 2022. Advances in coral immunity ‘omics in response to disease
> >> outbreaks. *Frontiers** in Marine Science* 9: 952199.
> >>
> >>
> >> Williams, G. J. and Graham, N. A. J. 2019. Rethinking coral reef
> >> functional
> >> futures. *Functional Ecology* 33: 943-946.
> >>
> >>
> >> Woodhead, A. J., Hicks, C. C., Norström, A. V., Williams, G. J., and
> >> Graham, N. A. J. 2019. Coral reef ecosystem services in the
> >> Anthropocene. *Functional
> >> Ecology* 33: 1023-1034.
> >>
> >>
> >> Zawada, K. J. A., Madin, J. S., Baird, A. H., Bridge, T. C. L., and
> >> Dornelas, M. 2019. Morphological traits can track coral reef responses
> to
> >> the Anthropocene. *Functional Ecology* 33: 962-975.
> >>
> >>
> >> Cannon SE, Aram E, Beiateuea T, Kiareti A, Peter M, Donner SD (2021)
> Coral
> >> reefs in the Gilbert Islands of Kiribati: Resistance, resilience, and
> >> recovery after more than a decade of multiple stressors. PLoS ONE 16(8):
> >> e0255304. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255304
> >>
> >>
> >>  Riegl B., Berumen M., Bruckner A. 2013.  Coral population trajectories,
> >> increased disturbance and management intervention: a sensitivity
> analysis.
> >> Ecology and Evolution 3(4): 1050–106
> >>
> >>
> >> C. A. Ward-Paige, H. Sykes B , G. J. Osgood A and J. Brunnschweiler.
> 2022.
> >> Community-driven shark monitoring for informed decision making: a case
> >> study from Fiji. Pacific Conservation Biology: PC22009.
> >>
> >>
> >> Hughes, T. P, Ayre, D., Connell, J. H. 1992. The evolutionary ecology of
> >> corals. *Trends **in Ecology and Evolution* 7:292–295.
> >>
> >>
> >> Cheers,  Doug
> >> --
> >> Douglas Fenner
> >> Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
> >> NOAA Fisheries Service
> >> Pacific Islands Regional Office
> >> Honolulu
> >> and:
> >> Coral Reef Consulting
> >> PO Box 997390
> >> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799-6298  USA
> >>
> >> Fixing methane leaks is a fast and vast help for climate change, and
> pays
> >> for itself.
> >> https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-fixing-methane-leaks-oil-132702814.html
> >>
> >> Switching to renewable energy could save trillions-up to $12 TRILLION by
> >> 2050.
> >> https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62892013
> >>
> >> 1 in 6 deaths worldwide can be attributed to pollution, new review shows
> >>
> >>
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/1-in-6-deaths-worldwide-can-be-attributed-to-pollution-new-review-shows/ar-AAXozQh
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
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-- 

Phillip Dustan PhD
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