Florida Middle Grounds

Abstract: As part of the US Coral Reef Task Force's National Program to Map, Assess, Inventory, and Monitor US Coral Reef Ecosystems, a comprehensive survey of projects/programs monitoring coral reef ecosystems and related habitats (i.e., seagrass beds and mangroves) in the US Caribbean and Pacific was undertaken. Information was gath- ered on a total of 296 monitoring and assessment projects conducted since 1990 in the US Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Substantial gaps in monitoring coverage of US coral reef ecosystems were revealed through geographic in- formation system (GIS) analysis of survey metadata. Although southern Florida contains approximately two-thirds of all marine monitoring projects found in the US Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, we were unable to identify any ongo- ing projects that monitor coral reefs along Florida's western coast and off of the Florida Middle Grounds. Addition- ally, Florida is covered by approximately 1 900 km 2 of mangroves, yet there were only four ongoing projects that monitor this ecosystem, leaving gaps in coverage in the Lower and Middle Keys and along the eastern and western coasts. The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, located offshore of the Texas/Louisiana border, has an integral long-term monitoring program, but lacks a monitoring project that gathers long-term, quantitative data on reef fish abundance and certain water quality parameters. Numerous coral reef monitoring projects in Puerto Rico are concentrated on the island's southwestern coast surrounding La Parguera, while far fewer monitoring projects are conducted along the northern and southeastern coasts and around Vieques Island. In the US Virgin Islands, the pau- city of monitoring projects in large areas of St. Croix and St. Thomas contrasts with monitoring activity in three ma- rine protected areas (MPAs), where 66% of the US Virgin Islands' coral reef monitoring sites were found. Only a se- ries of assessments have been conducted at Navassa, a small, uninhabited island located 55 km west of Haiti and 137 km northeast of Jamaica. In order to better understand changes in coral reef communities and to produce a series of biennial reports on the status of US coral reef ecosystems, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is developing a national coral reef monitoring network. This network has already begun to fill some of these gaps in monitoring coverage through issuing cooperative grants to states and territories to build long-term monitoring capacity.

Abstract: Large energetic spin—off eddies from Loop Current intrusions into the Gulf of Mexico play a major role in water exchange between the continental shelf and the deep basin in the northern Gulf. Reef fish larvae, spawned on the outer shelf and planktonic during their early life history, are broadly dispersed by this mechanism, but may be lost to the cohort by transport away from suitable settlement habitat. In this study, satellite altimeter data—assimilative ocean model currents (HYCOM) from 2003—2015 are used to calculate kinetic energy of the mixed layer over the upper continental slope (200 m —1000 m) due to eddy interactions with the shelf and to track the dispersal of larvae spawned during core summer (June—August) season. Over the 13 year model period, dispersal into the deep basin from the Flower Gardens National Marine Sanctuary averaged 63.5%, with a high of 90.8% and a low of 34.6%. Dispersal from the Florida Middle Grounds averaged 9.5%, with a high of 23.1% and a low of 0.6%. Temporal dispersal of larvae was associated with trends in turbulent kinetic energy and mean kinetic energy over the continental slope, and varied with the North Atlantic Oscillation Index. Between 2010 and 2011, mean kinetic energy replaced turbulent kinetic energy as the dominant dispersal mechanism.

Abstract: Recent studies have indicated that the Gulf of Mexico is bom1ded by a discontinual series of hard substrates which support faunal and floral assemblages of both temperate and tropical Ol'igins. This substrate distTibution has had a significant impact on molluscan fauna in the Gulf of Mexico. An investigation of the molluscan fauna of the Florida Middle Grounds has produced 7 5 species associated with this high relief substrate which is also chamcterized by hermatypic COl'als, Although the molluscan fauna is comprised of forms which are predominantly "Caribbean eurythermic" and "Caribbean Restricted" (76%) which is similar in composition to the West Flower Garden Bank of Texas, their species composition is quite dissimilar (only 23% similaTity). For these and other reasons, it is proposed that the zoogeographic status of the Gulf of Mexico should be seriously l'econsidered by specialists in other faunal groups.