BEITAL’S
EXOTIC AQUARIUMS
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BEItAL’S AquARIumS
84 Dexter Plaza Pearl River, NY 10965 Tel: (845) 735-2300 Fax: (845) 735-0209
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reef management practices, an international collaborative research project was launched early this year under
the leadership of the University of Exeter. This project is
entitled FORCE (Future of Reefs in a Changing Environment), and focuses on the socioeconomic and biological
aspects of Caribbean reef degradation. Within the project, a team of multidisciplinary scientists from Europe
and the Caribbean aims to enhance the scientific basis
for managing coral reefs in an era of rapid climate change
and unprecedented human pressure on coastal resources.
The components of the FORCE project are diverse
and include satellite remote sensing, ecological studies,
experiments on coral physiology, fisheries and marine
reserve design, evaluation of restoration methods for
Caribbean reefs, designing new management tools, identifying governance constraints for implementing new
management, and changing the livelihoods of communities dependent on coral reefs. Using remote sensing,
the effects of sea-surface temperature, hurricane incidence, wave exposure, and rainfall on coral reefs will be
studied. Ecological studies focus on comparing the current state of Caribbean reefs with historical data, identifying indicators for reef health, studying coral recovery,
identifying the fate of coastal nutrients entering the reef,
and looking at the response of fishes to changes in the
reef landscape. Ecological modeling will help to predict
where and when reef structural complexity is likely to
decline as a result of coral mortality and erosion.
The ongoing demise of the sea urchin Diadema antilla-rum, which is an important grazer of algae, will also be included in this study. Other scientists on the FORCE team
will study the effects of climate change, mainly seawater
temperature increase and ocean acidification, on coral
growth. These results will enhance scientists’ ability to
predict future responses of corals to climatic changes. The
project will also investigate the development of marine reserve design tools that take into account coral responses
to rising sea temperatures. In addition, project scientists
plan to generate “coral friendly” fisheries regulations for
herbivores such as parrotfish, and to find alternative fish
species to ensure sustainable harvesting. Moreover, the
impact of invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans) on the mortality of young parrotfish will be taken into account. Scientists from a related project, SECORE (SExual COral REproduction), will weigh the costs and benefits of rearing
the larvae of two Caribbean coral species in the laboratory. They will also study the efficacy of outplanting young
corals onto damaged Caribbean coral reefs.
Based on its results, the FORCE project will develop
a toolbox of sustainable management practices for coral
reef managers, aimed at minimizing the loss of coral reef
health and biodiversity. A key aspect of the project is that
it explicitly links the health of the ecosystem to the livelihoods of its dependent communities. Fishermen, local tourist agencies, and dive centers all depend on the
health of the reefs, which is why their activities should
