The role of land-use change in coral loss and recovery
Research is increasingly showing that land-based nutrients (from agriculture, sewage, and livestock rearing) and sediments can compromise coral health and reduce coral resilience to climate change impacts. However, the role of land-based pollution in the widespread loss of corals remains underexplored due to a lack of reef water quality monitoring.
Our group was recently awarded a National Science Foundation grant to combine paleo data (coral and reef sediment cores) and remote sensing data to link long-term changes in reef water quality, land use, and reef ecosystem health and resilience in locations across the Caribbean. Our group will soon also be launching a similar project in the Pacific which will incorporate Indigenous ecological knowledge, paleo, remote sensing, and modern survey data to gain a holistic understanding of long-term patterns and drivers of reef resilience.
Another major aspect of this work is a recently-formed working group led by Katie Cramer and Loren McClenachan that is formulating pathways for integrating long-term ecological data in Caribbean reef fisheries and water quality management. By combining paleoecological, historical, and data from monitoring programs, our group is producing the first region-wide compilation of reef water quality data for the Caribbean to quantify the role of land-based pollution in declines in reef health.