Community Abundance and Environmental Monitoring to Support Coral Reef Management in East Portland Special Fishery Conservation Area, Jamaica

Global warming and human impacts continue to be devastating for coral reef systems. Jamaican reefs have been adversely affected by a variety of threats including hurricanes, coral bleaching, disease, and algal overgrowth, the impact of which has been exacerbated by global climate change, overfishing, and urchin disease. Despite the dire situation, with proper protection, algal coral phase shifts can be reversed. One area that is being protected is the East Portland Special Fishery Conservation Area (EPSFCA). The EPSFCA is monitored by the Alligator Head Foundation (AHF), which houses a coral nursery, mangrove nursery, and leads monitoring and restoration practices. Although reefs in Jamaica, such as Discovery Bay, were well studied in the 1970s-early 2000s, many ecological studies have not extended to other regions around the island. In particular, the unique reefs of Northeast Jamaica lack data necessary for conservation efforts; no baseline information on community composition had been collected until the establishment of the AHF. To obtain an ecological baseline, this project synthesizes environmental data (nutrient levels, temperature, light) with community assemblage data (fish counts, benthic substrate assessments, and invertebrate counts) from EPSFCA reefs. These sites will be compared using ordinations. To address a longer timeframe of reef evolution, this project will use similar techniques on a fossil reef to see how Caribbean reefs have changed over thousands of years. An analysis of EPSFCA reefs from 2017-2019 found that many sites are distinct, but most reefs show signs of degradation (e.g., high algal cover). Much of the variation between sites can be explained by the abundance of turf algae and the corals Colopophyllia natans, Agaricia grahamae, and Acropora cervicornis. The goal of this project is to combine the EPSFCA data with environmental information to provide a road map for where conservation efforts are likely to support recovery.