Long-Term Monitoring at the East and West Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, 2009-2010. Volume 1: Technical Report.

摘要

In more than 20 years of being continuously monitored, the coral reefs of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary have maintained high levels of coral cover, suffered minimally from hurricanes, coral bleaching, and disease outbreaks, and supported relatively diverse and abundant fish populations as well as other vertebrate and invertebrate species. No significant long-term changes have been detected in coral cover or diversity at the Flower Garden Banks during monitoring efforts that have taken place since 1988, and likely not since the first measurements were made in the early 1970s. During the 2009 to 2010 monitoring period, the analysis of monitoring data indicated that the East and West Flower Garden Banks were robust and productive. Based on the 2009 and 2010 data, the average coral cover on the Flower Garden Banks coral caps is nearly 57 percent.