A5073682339- Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
- Marine and coastal plant biology
- Marine and fisheries research
- Coastal and Marine Management
- Aquaculture Nutrition and Growth
- Marine Sponges and Natural Products
- Geochemistry and Geologic Mapping
- Biological Control of Invasive Species
- Marine Ecology and Invasive Species
- Ocean Acidification Effects and Responses
- Echinoderm biology and ecology
Universidad Eugenio María de Hostos
2020-2024
Coral reefs worldwide are degrading due to climate change, overfishing, pollution, coastal development, coral bleaching, and diseases. In areas where the natural recovery of an ecosystem is negligible or protection through management interventions insufficient, active restoration becomes critical. The Reef Futures symposium in 2018 brought together over 400 reef experts, businesses, civil organizations, galvanized them save identify alternative solutions. highlighted that solutions...
Echinoderm mass mortality events shape marine ecosystems by altering the dynamics among major benthic groups. The sea urchin Diadema antillarum, virtually extirpated in Caribbean early 1980s an unknown cause, recently experienced another beginning January 2022. We investigated cause of this event through combined molecular biological and veterinary pathologic approaches comparing grossly normal abnormal animals collected from 23 sites, representing locations that were either affected or...
Mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs provide ecosystem services for three billion people worldwide. Studying these ecosystems is essential their effective management. With the financial support of French Embassy in Dominican Republic, FUNDEMAR leads MONITOREA program with technical TNC Ministry Environment. The project created national capacities developed a manual based on recognized Caribbean protocols, allowing multiple actors to monitor health space time. goal detect significant...
Coral restoration has been targeted as one of the major priorities to cope with rapid loss shallow coral reefs in tropical oceans. For years focused on developing techniques and technologies aimed at cost-effective production corals ways outplant cover wide spatial scales. While this approach is valid, it does not only represent scope research other important aspects field have received less attention. example, little attention paid into experimental framework needed show impact beyond...
Coral assisted fertilization, larval rearing and recruit propagation success in significant ecological scales, largely depend on scaling up replicating these efforts as many regions possible. The Dominican Foundation for Marine Studies (FUNDEMAR) has become a pioneer of the Republic, being first institution to successfully implement coral sexual reproduction techniques country establishing mobile larvae culturing facility. Here we share our perspective three main components behind FUNDEMAR’s...
Assisted sexual coral propagation, resulting in greater genet diversity via genetic recombination, has been hypothesized to lead more adaptable and, hence, resilient restored populations compared common clonal techniques. Coral restoration efforts have resulted substantial of 'Assisted Recruits' (i.e., juvenile corals derived from assisted reproduction; AR) multiple species outplanted reefs or held situ nurseries across many locations the Caribbean. These AR provided context evaluate their...
Abstract Coral reefs worldwide are degrading due to climate change, overfishing, pollution, coastal development, bleaching and diseases. In areas where natural recovery is negligible or protection through management interventions insufficient, active restoration becomes critical. The Reef Futures symposium in 2018 brought together over 400 reef experts, businesses, civil organizations, galvanized them save coral identify alternative solutions. highlighted that solutions discoveries from...
Monitoring programs can help understand coral disease dynamics. Here, we present results from a national program in the Dominican Republic (DR) aimed at evaluating diseases 3 times year following nested spatial design. Prevalence of DR varied sites to regions, suggesting that dynamics be driven by local processes and/or across larger scales. Three were common: Dark Spot (DSD), Yellow Band (YBD) and Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD). DSD YBD more prevalent western coast (north south),...
In the 1980s, two overlapping dramatic events structurally changed Caribbean reefs: massive die-offs of Diadema antillarum and acroporid corals. Four decades later, we present new reports extensive D. mortality Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease acting simultaneously in southeastern Dominican Republic.
Massive spawning of bleached colonies from six coral species was recorded in Guanahacabibes National Park, Cuba August‐September 2023. Bleached corals spawned within regional predictions, which indicates that bleaching did not interrupt sexual reproduction for this species. However, it is unclear if larval settlement and survival were reduced.
Permanent monitoring programs are valuable to identify drivers of ecosystem trends. For example, in 2021, we reported the first record Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (sctld) along northeastern coast Dominican Republic, affecting major reef—building coral species with a prevalence above 30%. However, few sites such as Carenero remained unaffected by sctld for almost 2 years. The average cover this site was about 18—25% (mean 18.3% ± sd 1.5), and disease did not exceed 7% community. During...
Caribbean coral reefs have been declining at unprecedented rates, with about 50% of live cover lost over the past 50 years. The description benthic and associated fish assemblages in remote areas, supposedly less vulnerable to human stressors, is necessary better understand spatial extent trends, target areas for special management protection. We present results from an expedition Silver Bank (SiBa), Dominican Republic, aimed providing first quantitative assessment area last 20 In April...
Abstract Crustose Coralline Algae (CCA) is a well-known settlement inducer for stony corals and, ultimately, recruitment, vital component reef growth and resilience. However, potential impacts of diseased CCA on larval are not fully understood, especially particular coral species. As oceans continue to warm, larvae need be able respond cues in elevated temperatures, yet the combined effects thermal stress health status behavior well known most Here we assessed effect temperatures disease...
Debido a distintas presiones globales y locales, los ecosistemas costero-marinos se encuentran rápidamente en declive un ritmo alarmante. La República Dominicana es especialmente vulnerable efectos de la degradación estos sus recursos, por ello necesaria implementación acciones conservación restauración mismos. Estas deben realizar desde una perspectiva holística, que considere no solo el aspecto biológico, sino también económico social mediante integración comunidad local. Fundación...