Bleaching and Reef Community Change in Jamaica: 1951–1991

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Abstract
Coral reefs have deteriorated at an accelerating pace during 40 years of ecological study at 11 sites around Jamaica. This is due to a variety of causes, whose effects are analyzed by comparing sites with known and divergent histories of environmental change. Degradative factors include overgrowth by algae, sponges, and soft corals, eutrophication by sewage nutrients, reduced herbivory due to overfishing and natural causes, hurricanes, sedimentation, diver and boat damage, and coral bleaching. These stresses have very different histories and gradients at different sites, allowing separation of their effects. Mass coral bleachingis apparently a novel phenomenon of the past decade. Non-parametric statistical analysis of relative stresses at the 11 sites shows that its pattern in space and time is unrelated to previously existing stresses.

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