Volume 77
Rapid assessment of the health status of coral communities in Guadeloupe Island(Lesser Antilles)
Authors
Noémie Léger, Simone Mège, Yolande Bouchon-Navaro, Didier Baltide,and Claude Bouchon Download PDF Open PDF in BrowserOther Information
Date: November, 2024
Event: Proceedings of the Seventy-Seventh Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute
City: Gosier
Country: Guadeloupe, French West Indies
Abstract
Caribbean coral reefs suffer from coral-algal phase shifts (Mumby, 2009). The increase in macroalgae load is due to several factors of natural (Diadema sea urchin epizootic) or anthropogenic origins. That includes overfishing (sea urchins, herbivorous fish like Scaridae and Acanthuridae) and coastal water eutrophication. This last phenomenon is mainly due to land and mangrove deforestation, fertilizer abuse, and poor sewage treatment… As a consequence, the health status of coral communities is widely associated with the cover of macroalgae