Download or read book Recovery Plan for Elkhorn Coral Acropora Palmata and Staghorn Coral A Cervicornis written by United States. National Marine Fisheries Service. Southeast Region and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The overall goal of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is to provide a means by which endangered and threatened species and the ecosystems upon which they depend may be conserved. To help achieve this goal, the ESA requires the preparation of a recovery plan for each listed species unless such a plan will not promote its conservation. Recovery plans guide the implementation of actions required to recover listed species to the point at which they are self-sustainable in the wild and can be safely removed from the list of endangered and threatened species. Recovery plans are advisory documents only, and their recommendations are not obligatory. However, failure to implement recovery actions may result in the indefinite listing of the species or its extinction. This recovery plan covers both elkhorn (Acropora palmata) and staghorn (A. Cervicornis) corals, which the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) listed as threatened under the ESA in May 2006"--Background.
Download or read book Mapping the Distribution of Acropora Cervicornis Staghorn Coral and Acropora Palmata Elkhorn Coral for a Reef Monitoring Program in Biscayne National Park Florida written by Cara Helene Dickman and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Staghorn Acropora Cervicornis and Elkhorn Acropora Palmata Corals written by Madeleine Gowing and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Biscayne National Park N P Coral Reef Restoration Plan written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Threatened Atlantic Elkhorn Coral Acropora Palmata written by Tali Vardi and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fossil data from multiple locations indicates that Atlantic elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, formed shallow reefs throughout the Caribbean Sea since the Pleistocene. Beginning in the 1980s A. palmata has declined to a small fraction of its formerly vast extent throughout the region. In 2006, elkhorn coral was the first coral, along with its sister species, staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis), to be included on the U.S. Endangered Species List. We used size-based matrix modeling to parameterize annual A. palmata population dynamics in Florida, over the course of one severe hurricane year (2005) and six calm years (2004, and 2006-2010), incorporating environmental stochasticity as inter-annual variability. We predicted that benthic cover would remain at current levels (4%) for the foreseeable future (until 2030) and beyond (until 2100), suggesting a lack of resilience following the 2005 hurricanes. Standard metrics for the quantification of number and size of individuals are essential to endangered species management. These usually straightforward tasks can be challenging for clonal, colonial organisms. Acropora palmata presents a particular challenge due to its plastic morphology and frequent fission. We quantified three-dimensional colony surface area (CSA), the most ecologically relevant measure of size, for 14 prototypically arborescent A. palmata colonies using three-dimensional digital imaging software. To relate CSA to simple field metrics, we compared log-likelihood values and determined that planar projection was the best predictor. The, tight, linear relationship between planar projection and CSA enables ecological rates, such as reef accretion and gamete production, to be calculated from field data. Finally, we expanded the matrix population model to compare population dynamics in several locations across the Caribbean. The general trend for Acropora palmata is further reductions in population size by 2030. The most striking difference we quantified was between Jamaica, where population size is projected to increase, and all other locations, where population size is projected to remain stable or decline. Density of a key herbivore, the sea urchin Diadema antillarum, was an order of magnitude greater in Jamaica than in any other location. These increases are occurring 30 years after a devastating die-off suggesting that herbivory by urchins may facilitate A. palmata recovery.
Download or read book Coral Reef Restoration Handbook written by William F. Precht and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2006-05-25 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " this book is the first to describe, in detail, the art and science of coral reef restoration. It is to be hoped that the information that can be gleaned within the pages of this book will set a path towards continued preservation of this valuable underwater treasure to be used, appreciated, and experienced for future generations." -- Senator
Download or read book Optimizing Restoration Site Selection Along the Florida Reef Tract for the Coral Species Acropora Cervicornis and Acropora Palmata written by Samantha King and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The decline of Acropora cervicornis and Acropora palmata populations and consequent listing as endangered species has prompted the need for restoration. Since financial resources are limited, optimal sites for restoration should not only be environmentally suitable for outplant survival, but also have a greater capacity to replenish surrounding reefs with larvae. However, in Florida coral larval dispersal patterns and reef connectivity remain poorly studied. Here, we measured long term larval survival and competency of A. cervicornis to calibrate a high resolution (100m) biophysical larval dispersal model of Acropora in the Florida Reef Tract (FRT). This model revealed that there is potential connectivity between reefs along the FRT, with most source reefs being located in the southern portion of the reef track, and most sinks in the northern part. The connectivity matrix was used then to develop a metapopulation model accounting for larval dispersal patterns, current and historic habitat for the species, growth, fecundity, and density-dependent post-settlement mortality for A. cervicornis and A. palmata, which allows comparing the capacity of suitable restoration sites to recolonize other reefs through sexual recruitment. Furthermore, it can determine optimal mesoscale spatial scaling and temporal planning of restoration project. We found that there was regional variation in the optimal spatial scaling, due to differences in intra-reginal connectivity and exiting coral cover. We also found that temporally staggering outplanting effort is important in poor environmental conditions. Considering ecological processes in restoration will enhance genetic diversity, hasten coral recovery, and boost resilience across the entire reef system.
Download or read book Endangered and Threatened Species Conservation of Threatened Elkhorn and Staghorn Corals Us National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Regulation Noaa 2018 Edition written by The Law Library and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-01-11 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Law Library presents the complete text of the Endangered and Threatened Species - Conservation of Threatened Elkhorn and Staghorn Corals (US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Regulation) (NOAA) (2018 Edition). Updated as of May 29, 2018 We, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), publish this final rule to apply all the prohibitions enumerated in section 9(a)(1) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to elkhorn (Acropora palmata) and staghorn (A. cervicornis) corals, with limited exceptions for two specified classes of activities that contribute to the conservation of the listed corals. We have determined that extending these prohibitions with two exceptions is necessary and advisable to provide for the conservation of the species. This ebook contains: - The complete text of the Endangered and Threatened Species - Conservation of Threatened Elkhorn and Staghorn Corals (US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Regulation) (NOAA) (2018 Edition) - A dynamic table of content linking to each section - A table of contents in introduction presenting a general overview of the structure
Download or read book Staghorn Corals of the World written by Carden C. Wallace and published by CSIRO PUBLISHING. This book was released on 1999 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Staghorn corals (genus Acropora) are the most obvious and important corals on coral reefs throughout the world, providing much of the beauty and variety seen on the reefs. This invaluable reference tool is the first major review of Acropora in over 100 years. It assesses all the known species worldwide, describing each in detail and illustrating the range of variability of form with habitat and geographic location. The classification, evolution and worldwide distribution of all species are reviewed and illustrated with colour plates, full page black and white plates and distribution maps. Details of the general biology of staghorn corals are discussed and illustrated. The book is complemented by a CD-ROM, Staghorn Corals of the World: A Key to Species of Acropora, containing a LucID-based key to all species of Acropora and a photo library of type specimens from museums around the world. Special Offer: Staghorn Corals of the World book and CD-ROM set for only $220.00.
Download or read book Coral Whisperers written by Irus Braverman and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2018-10-30 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, a catastrophic global bleaching event devastated many of the world’s precious coral reefs. Working on the front lines of ruin, today’s coral scientists are struggling to save these important coral reef ecosystems from the imminent threats of rapidly warming, acidifying, and polluted oceans. Coral Whisperers captures a critical moment in the history of coral reef science. Gleaning insights from over one hundred interviews with leading scientists and conservation managers, Irus Braverman documents a community caught in an existential crisis and alternating between despair and hope. In this important new book, corals emerge not only as signs and measures of environmental catastrophe, but also as catalysts for action.
Download or read book Coral Reef Restoration in a Changing World Science based Solutions written by Jesús Ernesto Arias González and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2022-06-14 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Research Plan for Fiscal Years 2007 to 2011 written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Management Plan for Caribbean Acropora Population Enhancement written by and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The purpose of this population enhancement management plan (Management Plan) is two-fold. The first is to adhere to the Policy Regarding Controlled Propagation of Species Listed under the Endangered Species Act. The Management Plan addresses the risks identified in the policy based on the current level of knowledge and provides guidelines and best management practices to minimize risks where information is lacking. The second is to guide active propagation of elkhorn and staghorn corals to maximize recovery potential as identified by the goals, actions, and criteria identified in the Acropora Recovery Plan (NMFS 2015). The Management Plan pertains to any efforts to propagate A. palmata or A. cervicornis when the intention is to release propagated individuals for reintroduction or augmentation of existing populations or to establish or maintain refugia populations (populations removed from the wild). This Management Plan will provide best practices for nursery cultivation and outplanting, guidelines for outplanting design and site selection, and a standardized approach to outplant tracking and reporting. It builds upon concepts and recommendations developed during a 2-day workshop for Acropora conservation and restoration hosted by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington DC in November 2009 (Smithsonian Institution 2009) and on best practices manuals developed by The Nature Conservancy (Johnson et al. 2011) and the Punta Cana Ecological Foundation (Bowden-Kerby 2014). Coral restoration partners, including non-governmental organizations, academia, zoos, aquaria, and federal, state, and local agencies, are requested to collectively implement this Management Plan"--Page 2.
Download or read book Genetic Bases of Immunity and Disease Resistance to White Band Disease in the Caribbean Staghorn Coral Acropora Cervicornis written by Silvia Libro and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past thirty years, marine disease outbreaks have increased significantly, producing dramatic alterations in marine ecosystems worldwide. Reef-building corals have been particularly vulnerable to the increase in new epizootic diseases, and yet many aspects of the coral-pathogen interaction remain unresolved, including how corals respond to disease infections. One example is represented by White Band Disease (WBD), a coral disease that causes rapid tissue degradation in acroporid corals. Since the 1970`s, WBD outbreaks have caused catastrophic mass mortalities of two foundation species on Caribbean coral reefs, the staghorn coral "Acropora cervicornis" and the elkhorn coral A. palmata, which populations have collapsed by up to 98%. The etiology of WBD has not been fully elucidated yet, but presence of disease resistant genotypes and local recovery from WBD in natural populations of "A. cervicornis" suggest that staghorn corals have the ability to fight the disease and that genetic mechanisms may underlie resistance to WBD. My thesis focuses on understanding the genetic basis of coral host immunity and resistance to WBD in the endangered staghorn coral "Acropora cervicornis" using next-generation sequencing (RNA-seq). To identify the key mediators of the immune response of staghorn corals to WBD disease, I conducted transcriptome analysis of healthy and WBD-infected staghorn corals from natural populations. My results show that WBD causes expression changes in 4% of the coral host transcriptome, and that the immune response to staghorn corals is characterized by pathogen recognition, production of reactive oxygen species, apoptosis and stress response genes, as well as eicosanoids, a class of lipid metabolites including leukotrienes and prostaglandins, that had not previously identified as immune mediators in scleractinian corals. Using common garden experiments, I exposed resistant and susceptible corals to healthy and to WBD-infected grafts to identify expression changes associated to resistance during disease exposure (WBD grafts) and allorecognition (healthy grafts). I found that expression patterns associated to disease resistance are independent from exposure to WBD and do not include any of the immune pathways involved in the response against WBD corals. Rather, the gene expression signature of WBD resistance encompasses a very small number of genes that are constitutively up- or down-regulated in resistant corals. Mechanisms involved in WBD resistance include RNA interference-mediated post-transcriptional regulation, antiviral defense and heat stress response, suggesting a link between thermal stress tolerance and disease resistance. Expression changes associated to exposure revealed that allorecognition only induces expression changes for a small subset of genes involved in general stress response and nematocyst discharge, while exposure to WBD has a large-scale effect on the transcriptome. Consistent with the results described above, disease exposure resulted in enhanced pathogen recognition, synthesis of ROS and production of eicosanoids. Hallmarks of early stage response to WBD included Toll-like receptors (TLR)-mediated NF-kB signaling, Prophenolxidase activity and increased expression of Heath shock proteins and antivirals. These results also show that eicosanoids in staghorn corals are involved in the response to WBD but not to allogeneic tissue exposure and mechanical injury, indicating a pivotal role during pathogen infections rather than during wound repair and general stress response. Taken together, these results indicate that "A. cervicornis" mounts a powerful response against disease infections involving several innate immune pathways. In addition, this response does not appear to be a general immune response, as indicated by the highly divergent expression profiles of corals exposed to WBD and healthy grafts, suggesting that "A. cervicornis" is able to discriminate between pathogen attack and allorecognition. By characterizing the genetic signature of resistance to WBD, this research represents a valuable contribution to understanding how corals respond to disease and can serve as a conservation tool to identify and farm WBD-resistant genotypes for large scale restoration of the endangered Caribbean "Acropora". This knowledge is critical to the conservation of threatened reef corals and has direct conservation implications for the endangered Caribbean staghorn coral "A. cervicornis".
Download or read book 2007 Quick Look Report written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The declines in abundance of two of the principal Caribbean reef-building corals, staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) and elkhorn coral (A. palmata) (Figure 1), are often-cited examples of the changes in western Atlantic reefs that have occurred during the past several decades. The causes of these declines, which began in the late 1970s, include large-scale factors such as coral bleaching and disease, especially white band disease, as well as smaller scale effects from storms and predation by corallivorous snails and damselfishes. Both coral species were under consideration for addition to the U.S. Endangered Species List since the early 1990s and were formally added to the list as threatened in 2005 based upon Caribbean-wide population declines and poor recovery. The reader is referred to the Acropora Biological Review Team summary at http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdf/050303%20status%20review.pdf for further information"--Summary.
Download or read book The Codex of the Endangered Species Act Volume II written by John F. Organ and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-11-13 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) is one of the most cherished and reviled laws ever passed. It mandates protection and preservation of all the nation’s species and biodiversity, whatever the cost. It has been a lightning rod for controversy and conflicts between industry/business and environmentalists. In this volume, leading Endangered Species Act experts interpret and propose legislative and administrative changes to prepare the ESA for future challenges. They explore regulations on avoiding harm to and producing benefits for species, cooperation between state and federal agencies, scientific analyses, and the necessary politics to enact their ideas. This is a call to action to chart an enlightened future for the Endangered Species Act that embraces the nation’s moral commitment of 50 years ago to address species extinction constructively, mindful of biodiversity, and as a fixture among the nation’s values and needs. The interconnected web of life includes all living species that depend on each other for survival, us among them. The stakes—our very future—are too high to ignore.
Download or read book Developing Surface Water GPS Digital Mapping Technology to Map the Spatial Distribution of Size Classes and Disease Prevalence of Elkhorn Coral in the Nearshore Waters of St Thomas and St Croix written by Barry Devine and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Much has been written about the species population status of the now ESA Listed Elkhorn (Acropora palmata) and Staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) corals throughout their range and the decline the two species have suffered over the past three decades from storms and disease. The University of the Virgin Islands Conservation Data Center in partnership with the Nature Conservancy, Eastern Caribbean Office created a pilot project to develop GIS/GPS digital technology to map the spatial extent of size classes and disease affecting the ESA Listed Species Elkhorn Coral (Acropora palmata) around St. Thomas and St. Croix, USVI as a population baseline. The project was submitted by The Nature Conservancy to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under a Coral Reef Conservation Program grant and received approval in 2006. This Geographic Information Systems (GIS) pilot mapping project would have two goals; (1) to develop and use a new surface water Global Positioning System / Personal Data Assistant (GPS/PDA) to record data previously recorded and plotted by hand and (2) to map the spatial location and population patterns of these species in priority bays around St. Croix and St. Thomas as a foundation to broader mapping efforts and long term datasets on population recovery and decline. The sampling plan was to be completed twice, separated by a one year interval to possibly determine any recovery or decline within the surveyed population, but TNC staff and personnel issues, weather, site access, technical challenges and sampling plan adjustments caused that objective to be revised by the Principal Investigators"--Introduction.
