Steps to diversify priority‐setting research in conservation: reflections on de Gracia 2021

A doubling of stony coral cover on shallow forereefs at Carrie Bow Cay, Belize from 2014 to 2019

“…Second, we witnessed an incredible increase in stony coral cover at Tobacco Reef, also a forereef site: + 5100% since 2014, a consequence of transitioning from almost no coral cover (< 0.01%) in 2014 to a substantial cover of primarily A. cervicornis by 2019 (15.6%). This observation—while potentially due to shifting the transect on the scale of a few meters, although unlikely given the magnitude of the percent change—also agrees with anecdotal observations from researchers who have been working in the region for many years to decades, and further aligns with regional recovery recently reported in Mumby et al 44 .…”

“…Second, and relatedly, herbivorous fish density is relatively high in Belize compared to other reefs in the Caribbean, and fish biomass has been shown to be increasing over the past decade across large portions of the MAR, in part due to fishing restrictions such as Belize’s ban on harvesting herbivorous fishes 23 and the implementation of marine protected areas 39 . High herbivore biomass has been linked to greater consumption of macroalgae throughout the Caribbean 39 , 42 , 43 and most recently in Southwater Caye Marine Reserve 44 , and may explain the overall lower abundance of macroalgae at our sites, keeping the substrate open for colonization by corals over the period of our survey 40 .…”