Long-Term Monitoring at Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
Marissa F. Nuttall, Emma L. Hickerson, John A. Embesi, Ryan J. Eckert, & G.P. Schmahl Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary 1
Flower Garden Banks NMS
• Monitoring since 1978 • BOEMRE instituted monitoring since 1988 • Designated as a Sanctuary in 1992 • Joint monitoring effort began • 32 year dataset
2 Flower Garden Banks NMS
EFGB
WFGB
3 Long-Term Monitoring Tasks
• Random Transects (10m) • Repetitive Quadrat Photostations (8m2) • Lateral Growth Photostations (Diploria strigosa) • Fish Surveys (Bohnsack-Bannerot 1986) • Lobster and Urchin Surveys (100m) • Perimeter Video • Sclerochronology (Montastraea faveolata) • Water Quality Analysis (temperature, salinity …, etc.)
4 Historical Dataset
Percent Coral Cover at the Flower Garden Banks, 1978 – 2010 Digital LPI Film Photography Video 80 Photography East Bank West Bank 70
60
50
40 Percent Cover 30
20
10
0
Year a. TAMU, b. CSA, c. TAMU-CC, d. PBSJ, e. FGBNMS
5 Major Reefs Living Coral Cover
As determined by the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRAA) in 2006
6 2009 – 2010 Field Seasons 2009 2010 EFGB WFGB EFGB WFGB August 16 – 19 August 19 – 21 August 16 – 19 August 19 –20 October 11 – 13 November 8 – 10
7 Random Transects
Percent Cover of Four Functional Categories at the Flower Garden Banks, 2008 – 2010 100
90
80
70
60 CORAL 50 SPONGE
Percent Cover 40 MACROALGAE CTB 30
20
10
0 2008 EFGB* 2009 EFGB 2010 EFGB 2008 WFGB* 2009 WFGB 2010 WFGB Bank and Year *PBS&J data
8 Coral Cover
2008* Percent Cover of the Coral Taxa at the East Flower Garden Bank, 2008Percent-2010 Cover of the Coral Taxa, 2008 – 2010 2009 Percent Cover of the Coral Taxa at the West Flower EFGB WFGB 2010 Garden Bank, 2008-2010 Oxysmilia spp.
Paracyanthus pulchellus Oxysmilia spp. Scolymia spp. Paracyanthus pulchellus Siderastrea siderea Scolymia spp. Colpophyllia amaranthus Siderastrea siderea Siderastrea radians Colpophyllia amaranthus Mussa angulosa Siderastrea radians Madracis spp. Mussa angulosa Millepora alcicornis Madracis spp. Stephanocoenia… Millepora alcicornis Agaricia spp. Stephanocoenia intersepta Unidentifiable coral Agaricia spp. Colpophyllia natans Unidentifiable coral Montastraea cavernosa Colpophyllia natans Porites astereoides Montastraea cavernosa Diploria strigosa Porites astereoides MASC Diploria strigosa 0 10 20 30 40 50 MASC *PBS&J data 0 10 20 30 40 50
10 Coral Bleaching Bleached Coral, 2010 Percent Cover of Bleached and Paling Coral, 2009 – 2010 Other 12 Species
11
10 Montastrae Bleached a cavernosa MASC 9 Paling 8
7
6
% of % of Coral 5 Paling Coral, 2010
4 Other Species 3
2 Montastraea cavernosa 1
0 MASC 2009 EFGB 2010 EFGB 2009 WFGB 2010 WFGB
11 Repetitive Photostations
12 Repetitive Photostations
13 Lateral Growth Stations
2009 2010
14 Fish Survey Data
Species and Family Richness of Fish Abundance per 100m2 at the Ichthyofauna at the Flower Garden Flower Garden Banks, 2007 – 2010 Banks, 2007 – 2010 300 70
250 60
50 2 200
40
150
Number 30
20 100 Mean Fish Fish Abundance/100m Mean
10 50 0 EFGB EFGB EFGB EFGB WFGB WFGB WFGB WFGB 2007 2008 2009 2010 2007 2008 2009 2010 0 EFGB EFGB EFGB EFGB WFGB WFGB WFGB WFGB Number of Samples (n) Species Richness Family Richness 2007 2008 2009 2010 2007 2008 2009 2010
15 Fish Survey Data
Sighting Frequency of Ichthyofauna at Sighting Frequency of Ichthyofauna at the EFGB, 2009 – 2010 the WFGB, 2009 – 2010
Pomacentridae Pomacentridae 26% 29%
Tetraodontidae Tetraodontidae 4% 5%
Labridae Acanthuridae Acanthuridae 15% 6% 7% Inermiidae, Labridae Monacanthidae, Cirrhitidae, 16% Mobulidae, Mullidae, Scaridae Scaridae Atherinopsidae, Echeneidae, 9% Serranidae Serranidae 11% Muraenidae, Apogonidae, 11% Aulostomidae, Dasyatidae, 9% Diodontidae, and Holocentridae
16 Urchin and Lobster Transects
Urchin and Lobster per 100m2 at the Flower Garden Banks, 2004 – 2010 •Caribbean wide 16 Diadema die-off in
Diadema antillarum 1983 – 1984 14 Panulirus argus Panulirus guttatus 12 •Pre die-off numbers recorded at ~50 per
10 2 100m2 at the WFGB 2 8 and ~140 per 100m at umber/100m
N the EFGB (Gittings et 6 al. 1988) 4 •Estimated FGBNMS 2 numbers post die-off 0 of <1 per100m2 EFGB EFGB EFGB EFGB EFGB EFGB EFGB WFGB WFGB WFGB WFGB WFGB WFGB WFGB
2004* 2005* 2006* 2007* 2008* 2009 2010 2004* 2005* 2006* 2007* 2008* 2009 2010 (Gittings et al. 1986) *PBS&J data
17 Perimeter Video
WFGB 2009 WFGB 2010
Data Summary EFGB WFGB 2009 2010 2009 2010 Bleached Pale Bleached Pale Bleached Pale Bleached Pale 1 0 6 1 0 3 97 27
18 Sclerochronology: Coral Coring
2010 Montastraea faveolata Average Winter Stress 2009 Annual Accretion Rates 1.00 2008 EFGB 0.90 WFGB 0.80
0.70
0.60
cm 0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00 1998 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
WFGB SW
19 Water Quality Analysis
East Flower Garden Bank Annual West Flower Garden Bank Annual Temperature Variation, 2009 – 2010 Temperature Variation, 2009 – 2010 32.0 32.0
30.0 30.0
28.0 28.0
26.0 26.0
24.0 24.0
22.0 22.0
20.0 1990-2008 Mean 20.0 2009 1990-2008 Mean 2010 2009 2010 18.0 18.0
16.0 16.0 1-Jan 1-Mar 1-May 1-Jul 1-Sep 1-Nov 1-Jan 1-Mar 1-May 1-Jul 1-Sep 1-Nov
20 Water Quality Analysis
EFGB WFGB 14 14 Ammonia mg/L 12 12 Chlorophyll-a mg/m³ 10 10 Nitrate mg/L Nitrite mg/L 8 8 Phosphorus mg/L 6 Surface 6 Nitrogen mg/L 4 4 2 2 0 0 14 14 12 12 10 10 8 8 6 -10m 6 4 4 2 2 0 0 14 14 12 12 10 10 8 -20m 8 6 6 4 4 2 2 0 0
21 Oil Spill Response and Monitoring
Data courtesy of: ROFFER'S OCEAN FISHING FORECASTING SERVICE, INC. • April 20, 2010: Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill • Shallow Water Coral Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA)
– Semi-Permeable Membrane Devices (SPMDs) – Sediment Samples • Baseline Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) – Water and Sediment
22 Summary
• FGBNMS represents a relatively stable coral reef environment
– Consistent high coral cover ~50%
– Consistent fish species and family abundance • Lengthy historical dataset • Continued monitoring is needed to monitor the environment for changes that may threaten the health of the reef
23 Thanks to …
FGBNMS Research Team John Embesi Emma Hickerson Ryan Eckert G.P. Schmahl BOEMRE James Sinclair Kate Winters Texas A&M University at Galveston Research Divers
24 References
Bohnsack, J.A. and S.P. Bannerot. 1986. A stationary visual census technique for quantitatively assessing community structure of coral reef fishes. NOAA Technical Report NMFS 41, U.S. Dept. of Commerce. 15 pp.
Gittings, S.R. and T.J. Bright. 1986. Assessment of the coral recovery following an incident of anchoring damage at the Flower Garden banks, northwestern Gulf of Mexico, Draft final report to NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries Division, Washington, D.C. 45 pp.
Gittings, S.R., T.J. Bright, and G.D. Dennis. 1988. Mass Mortality of Diadema antillarum in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico: Effect on algae and coral cover. Unpublished manuscript, Dept. of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.
25 http://flowergarden.noaa.gov 26