ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Coral Reef Research
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1641098
Twenty Years of Change in a Southeast Florida Acropora cervicornis Thicket
Provisionally accepted
- 1Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, United States
- 2King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
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Acropora cervicornis historically exists in large, dense thickets that provide functionally unique habitat. However, populations in the Caribbean have declined by up to 98%, frequently isolating extant colonies. Remnant thickets are valuable research areas, as they provide opportunities to assess community dynamics, resilience, succession, and the response to disturbances. BCA (Broward County Acropora) is a 10,000 m2 A. cervicornis thicket, located offshore Broward County in the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Ecosystem Conservation Area (Coral ECA), which has been monitored since 2003. The objective of this study was to analyze temporal changes in the thicket, specifically assessing the impact of disturbances and community dynamics that corresponded with fluctuations in the ratio between living and dead A. cervicornis. Photographic data were collected along 12 permanent transects to assess temporal changes in percent benthic cover from 2003-2022. Demographic data on non-A. cervicornis corals were collected along four belt transects from 2012-2022. Live A. cervicornis cover declined from 34.8 ± 2% SE in 2003 to 2.4 ± 0.6% SE in 2022. The most severe declines corresponded with heat stress events and two hurricanes in 2005, a cold stress event in 2010, and heat stress, disease, and predation outbreaks between 2014 and 2016. As A. cervicornis died, other taxa utilized the remaining dead structure, with increases in the encrusting, weedy coral species Agaricia agaricites, macroalgae, and crustose coralline algae cover. However, structural decline in later years suggests the complete loss of this unique and complex habitat in the coming years. Thicket recovery will likely require active restoration and a reduction in local and global stressors.
Keywords: Benthic community dynamics, long-term coral reef monitoring, disturbances, Endangered coral species, coral reef ecological services
Received: 04 Jun 2025; Accepted: 29 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Perez, Jones, Goergen and Gilliam. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Daniel Medardo Perez, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, United States
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