Declining coral skeletal extension for forereef colonies of Siderastrea siderea on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, Southern Belize.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Natural and anthropogenic stressors are predicted to have increasingly negative impacts on coral reefs. Understanding how these environmental stressors have impacted coral skeletal growth should improve our ability to predict how they may affect coral reefs in the future. We investigated century-scale variations in skeletal extension for the slow-growing massive scleractinian coral Siderastrea siderea inhabiting the forereef, backreef, and nearshore reefs of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS) in the western Caribbean Sea.

Methodology/principal findings

Thirteen S. siderea cores were extracted, slabbed, and X-rayed. Annual skeletal extension was estimated from adjacent low- and high-density growth bands. Since the early 1900s, forereef S. siderea colonies

SUBMITTER: Castillo KD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3040180 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature