Coral Reef Monitoring In Biscayne National Park, 2000.

Patterson, Matt; Moulding, Alison

A report on the data collected about the park's coral reef resources in 1998 using underwater videography including coral reef census. Biscayne National Park's coral reefs are one of the rare and beautiful areas that the park was created to protect and preserve. The Resource Management division began collecting data about the park's coral reef resources in 1998 using underwater videography. Twenty-five meter long transects were video taped along the reef for archival and analysis. In 1998 and 1999 eight sites were surveyed (5 offshore bank reefs and three patch reefs). These videos were reviewed and coral colonies were counted, and density was estimated. In 2000, the survey was expanded in two ways, both spatially and in the types of data collected. Surveys were conducted at 11 sites (four patch reefs and seven offshore bank reefs). Two methods were used, 25 meter long underwater video transects and 2m by 25m belt transects where stony coral censuses were conducted. Each site was sampled ten times with both methods. The underwater video transect is important for archival purposes, and allows for further analysis of various types including percent cover of the various biologic communities. Underwater video of coral reef systems underestimates the amount of coral due to the cryptic nature of some species. The importance of the stony coral census is that it provides a more robust estimate of species richness for the area, and allows for more exact species identification in the field, which becomes much harder in the lab from the video tape. The coral census also collects data on coral bleaching, black band disease, white diseases, other diseases, and the number of Dicukma antil/arum urchins.