Caribbean reefs struggling to recover from ecological sucker punches

A new study highlights the series of setbacks that have beset Caribbean coral reefs over the past few decades. The study charts the combination of events that has left the coral reefs in danger of converting to a new ecosystem type — one dominated not by living coral but by blooms of algae.

A group of ecologists led by Peter J. Mumby constructed a mathematical model to investigate the effects of a series of events, each of which acted as sucker punches that damaged reef health over the 1980s. First, coral was damaged by Hurricane Allen in 1980, and shortly after, in 1983, the ecosystem was rocked by a mass die-off of the urchin Diadema antillarum, which help to maintain coral health by grazing algae growing on dead coral, allowing the reef to be recolonized by healthy new coral colonies.

As Mumby and colleagues explain this combination of events — as well as the impact of the immense Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 — left the coral vulnerable to being taken over by algae. Their analysis may offer strategies for rescuing the reef ecosystem, perhaps by promoting populations of parrotfish, which also graze algae growing on the reef.

CONTACT

Peter J. Mumby (University of Exeter, UK)