Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA) Belt Transect Survey (Advanced/Level 3) Training By Julie Galkiewicz SNI - Tarpon Springs

What did we survey with the Basic level? Coral species Sizes

What we’re adding! Disease types % mortality and classifications Bleaching Clumps, Fragments, Isolates

Diseases Colored Band Diseases – Black Band Disease (BBD) White Diseases or Syndromes – ACER and APAL only: White Band (WB) or White Patch Disease (WPD) – All other corals: White Plague (WP) Tissue discoloration – Dark Spots Syndrome (DS) – Yellow Band (YB) Tissue Anomalies

Diseases: Colored Band Diseases Black Band Disease (BBD)

White Diseases or Syndromes For APAL and ACER only White Band (WB) White Patch Disease (WPD)

White Diseases or Syndromes All the rest of the corals: White Plague (WP)

Tissue Discoloration Dark Spot (DS)Yellow Band (YB)

Disease? Parrotfish bites! – Destroys skeleton structure – No tissue left behind – Other diseases don’t erode the skeleton

Tissue anomalies Tumors – Large polyps or ridges compared to the rest of the coral – Same coral tissue

Mortality Newly dead (ND) Transitional Mortality (TM) Old Mortality (OM) Standing Dead (SD)

New Mortality (NM) – Bright white skeleton – No algal cover Transitional Mortality (TM) – Skeleton still intact – Some turf algae or biofilm growth

Old Mortality (OM) – Algae, sponges, other corals covering the dead part – Skeleton eroding away

Standing Dead (SD) – No living coral tissue on the skeleton – Skeleton structure eroded away

Estimating % Mortality

Percent Mortality Estimate the percent of living (colored) tissue AB C

Bleaching Bleaching (BL) – Polyps still living, skeleton not bare Pale (P) SSID

Clumps, Fragments, and Isolates Clumps A group of the same species of coral that are overlapping. Can’t see individual colony borders. (Oh my!)

Clumps, Fragments, and Isolates Fragments Detached, broken, and easily moved coral that is unlikely to remain for long in its current position on the reef

Fragmentation

Isolates Isolated patches of coral tissue on a large boulder coral – Separated by dead skeleton – Caused by disease, bleaching killing off part of the coral (Oh my!) Clumps, Fragments, and Isolates