Reef condition and protection of coral diversity and evolutionary history in the marine protected areas of Southeastern Dominican Republic

Cortés-Useche, Camilo; Muñiz-Castillo, Aarón Israel; Calle-Triviño, Johanna; Yathiraj, Roshni; Arias‐González, Jesús Ernesto

doi:10.1016/j.rsma.2019.100893

Cited by 10 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Coral reef sites are distributed along a semi-continuous fringing reef dominated by rocky and coral substrate, with small and dispersed coral patches ( Geraldes, 2003 ). The municipality is part of the Romana–Bayahibe–Dominicus tourism destination area, which is characterized by a fast transformation of the coastline and coastal seascape during the last decades ( Cortés-Useche et al, 2019 ). It is currently a leading tourist attraction for the Dominican Republic, with an average of approximately 559,000 visitors per year and over 3,300 hotel rooms ( Herrera-Moreno et al, 2014 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Bayahibe area includes several MPAs traditionally managed from a cultural/tourism perspective ( Herrera-Moreno et al, 2014 ), with multiple landscape and seascape protection that include (1) Cotubanamá National Park (CNP) which was established in 1975 by a top down government mandate (796.40 km 2 ), and included within, a No-take reserve in the reef lagoon between the mangrove forests and Saona Island, close to “Punta Cacón” reef, called a “Catuano” channel where fishing and vessel traffic has been prohibited since 2009 by Decree 499‒09 ( Cortés-Useche et al, 2019 ), (2) Guaraguao Catuano Natural Recreation Area (GCNRA) established in 1975, that occupies a marine area of 18.59 km 2 and includes land-based protection of important ecosystems such as seagrass and coastal dunes ( SINAP, 2014 ), and (3) the Southeastern Coral Reef Marine Sanctuary (SCRMS) with an area of 7,855.31 km 2 , declared in 2009 as an MPA by Dominican Government Decree 571-09. The main goal of these designations was to conserve natural habitat and the unique environment that exists along the continental shelf on the SE part of the Hispaniola Island, and includes Dominicus reef sites linked to a thriving snorkeling and diving tourism ( Table S1 ; Cortés-Useche et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We illustrated this framework by presenting conservation actions at the local level that can be adapted to coral reefs management in the specific situation of intense coastal development and tourism activities. We compared our study considering reef health indicators and management status with other sites across the Caribbean region with similar physical characteristics and survey methods ( Jackson et al, 2014 ; Perera-Valderrama et al, 2016 ; Steneck et al, 2018 , 2019 ; Cortés-Useche et al, 2019 ; Martínez-Rendis, Acosta-González & Arias-González, 2020 ) ( Table 1 ). The aim of our study was to describe a conservation case using an ecological context framework and make information available on the restorative actions, active and passive, being implemented at the local level for the improvement of coral reef health.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conservation actions and ecological context: optimizing coral reef local management in the Dominican Republic

Cortés-Useche

Hernández-Delgado

Calle-Triviño

et al. 2021

PeerJ

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Over the past few decades, coral reef ecosystems have been lost at accelerated rates as a result of global climate change and local stressors. Local management schemes can help improve the condition of coral reefs by enhancing their ecosystem recovery capacity. Caribbean conservation efforts include mitigation of local anthropogenic stressors, and integrating social participation. Here, we analyzed the case of the Bayahibe reefs in the Southeastern (SE) Dominican Republic to identify conservation actions and illustrate a conceptual example of local seascape management. We assessed reef health indicators from 2011 to 2016. Overall, our results show increases in total fish biomass, in both commercial and herbivorous fishes. Mean live coral cover was 31% and fleshy macroalgae was 23% after multiple disturbances such as Hurricanes Sandy and Isaac (2012), Mathew (2016) and heat stress presented in the study area in 2015. We also described actions taken by stakeholders and government institutions, including the implementation of a policy declaring an area of 869,000 ha as a marine protected area (MPA), enhanced water quality treatment, local restrictions to vessel traffic, enforcement of fishing regulations, and the removal of invasive lionfish (Pterois spp.). In addition, a restoration program for the threatened staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) was established in 2011, and currently has eight coral nurseries and six outplanting sites. Considering the biology and ecology of these reefs, we observed good results for these indicators (live coral cover, fish biomass, and water quality) in contrast with severely degraded Caribbean reefs, suggesting that optimizing local management may be a useful example for improving reef condition. Our results provide an overview of trends in reef condition in the SE Dominican Republic and could support current strategies to better protect reefs in the region. Given that Caribbean coral reefs face extreme challenges from global climate change, management measures may improve reef conditions across the region but stronger policy processes and increased scientific knowledge are needed for the successful management of coral reefs.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conservation actions and ecological context: optimizing coral reef local management in the Dominican Republic

Cortés-Useche

Hernández-Delgado

Calle-Triviño

et al. 2021

PeerJ

Self Cite

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“…After Hurricane Matthew, N3 was moved a few meters offshore so its corals could increase their growth rates. The N6-Catalina nursery site receives a large number of daily tourists and watershed discharges with large quantities of sediments, nutrients, and urban wastes from La Romana city (Cortés-Useche et al, 2019).…”

Section: Survival and Productivity In Coral Nurseriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing and genotyping threatened staghorn coral Acropora cervicornis nurseries during restoration in southeast Dominican Republic

Calle-Triviño

Rivera‐Madrid

León-Pech

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Acropora cervicornis is a structurally and functionally important Caribbean coral species. Since the 1980s, it has suffered drastic population losses with no signs of recovery and has been classified as a critically endangered species. Its rapid growth rate makes it an excellent candidate for coral restoration programs. In 2011, the Fundación Dominicana de Estudios Marinos (Dominican Marine Studies Foundation, FUNDEMAR) began an A. cervicornis restoration program in Bayahibe, southeast Dominican Republic. In this study, we present the methodology and results of this program from its conception through 2017, a preliminary analysis of the strong 2016 and 2017 cyclonic seasons in the greater Caribbean, and a genetic characterization of the “main nursery”. The mean survival of the fragments over 12 months was 87.45 ± 4.85% and the mean productivity was 4.01 ± 1.88 cm year−1 for the eight nurseries. The mean survival of six outplanted sites over 12 months was 71.55 ± 10.4%, and the mean productivity was 3.03 ± 1.30 cm year−1. The most common cause of mortality during the first 12 months, in both nurseries and outplanted sites, was predation by the fireworm, Hermodice carunculata. We identified 32 multilocus genotypes from 145 total analyzed individuals. The results and techniques described here will aid in the development of current and future nursery and outplanted site restoration programs.

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“…The lack of natural recovery of Caribbean coral reefs [ 11 ] has spurred the need for active management programs to assist in their recovery [ 12 , 13 ]. Management actions include effective spatial planning, enforcement, no take zones, treatment of sewage and protection of adjoining ecosystems such as mangroves [ 12 , 14 – 16 ]. Resilience-based management of coral reefs [ 17 ] may stimulate coral recovery, especially if applied in conjunction with active restoration [ 13 , 18 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coral reef restoration efforts in Latin American countries and territories

Bayraktarov

Banaszak

Maya³

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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Coral reefs worldwide are degrading due to climate change, overfishing, pollution, coastal development, coral bleaching, and diseases. In areas where the natural recovery of an ecosystem is negligible or protection through management interventions insufficient, active restoration becomes critical. The Reef Futures symposium in 2018 brought together over 400 reef restoration experts, businesses, and civil organizations, and galvanized them to save coral reefs through restoration or identify alternative solutions. The symposium highlighted that solutions and discoveries from long-term and ongoing coral reef restoration projects in Spanish-speaking countries in the Caribbean and Eastern Tropical Pacific were not well known internationally. Therefore, a meeting of scientists and practitioners working in these locations was held to compile the data on the extent of coral reef restoration efforts, advances and challenges. Here, we present unpublished data from 12 coral reef restoration case studies from five Latin American countries, describe their motivations and techniques used, and provide estimates on total annual project cost per unit area of reef intervened, spatial extent as well as project duration. We found that most projects used direct transplantation, the coral gardening method, micro-fragmentation or larval propagation, and aimed to optimize or scale-up restoration approaches (51%) or provide alternative, sustainable

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Reef condition and protection of coral diversity and evolutionary history in the marine protected areas of Southeastern Dominican Republic

Cited by 10 publications

References 63 publications

Conservation actions and ecological context: optimizing coral reef local management in the Dominican Republic

Conservation actions and ecological context: optimizing coral reef local management in the Dominican Republic

Assessing and genotyping threatened staghorn coral Acropora cervicornis nurseries during restoration in southeast Dominican Republic

Coral reef restoration efforts in Latin American countries and territories

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