Realm: Marine
Climate: Tropical
Biome: Tropical Coral Central latitude: 17.194100
Central longitude: -87.936060
Duration: 5 years, from 1997 to 2016
Climate: Tropical
Biome: Tropical Coral Central latitude: 17.194100
Central longitude: -87.936060
Duration: 5 years, from 1997 to 2016
3985 records
48 distinct species
Across the time series Agaricia agaricites is the most frequently occurring speciesMethods
Study area and protection status Scientists have tracked reef community composition across Belize for over 50 years, mostly in short-term, longitudinal studies [e.g., 11, 48, 5052]. Belize has an extensive, 30-plus-year-old MPA network [48, 53] and a history of frequent large-scale disturbances, including bleaching events, disease outbreaks, hurricanes, and even an earthquake (Table 1). We surveyed fore-reef benthic communities at 1518 m depth at 15 sites along the BBR during the summer months in 1997, 1999, 2005, 2009, and 2016 (Fig 1, Table 2). Due to logistical and resource constraints, only three of the 15 sites were surveyed every year: Bacalar Chico, Middle Caye, and Tacklebox (Table 2). Study sites were selected to maximize spatial heterogeneity and spanned a range of protections or management zones, including the Bacalar Chico, Hol Chan, and Glovers Reef Marine Reserves [5, 49]. They included five sites within fully protected (FP) zones (marine reserves), where only non-extractive activities are permitted, three sites within general-use (GU) zones, where fishing is permitted with some gear restrictions (e.g., prohibi- tions on longlines, gillnets, and spear-fishing with SCUBA) and modest fishing limits (e.g., catch-size limits for queen conch and lobster), and seven sites in unprotected (NP) zones, where fishing is allowed [48] (Table 2). Enforcement of fishing regulations in FP and GU sites was variable over time and ranged from inadequate to good (Table 2). Note that national sea- sonal closures for some species (e.g., Nassau grouper) and bans (e.g., on catching parrotfishes) applied to all three management zones. Benthic surveys Benthic surveys were conducted in situ using SCUBA. At each site, dive teams laid out four to ten, 2530 m x 2 m belt transects down the centers of reef spurs, perpendicular to the shore- line. The transects generally began on or near the shoulders of the spurs (i.e., beginning of the slope) at 1518 m depth, shoreward of the drop-off that characterizes most of the reefs in Belize, and ran upward toward the reef crest. Transects were parallel to each other and were usually separated by >10 m. Divers worked in buddy pairs, in which one diver laid out the transect tape and the other used a digital camera in an underwater housing to obtain videos or still-frame images of the benthos. At each site, we videotaped or photographed the belt transects at a standard distance of 25 cm above the benthos, using a bar projecting from the front of the camera housing to maintain the distance from the bottom. We also surveyed for Diadema antillarum from 2009 onward, but they were generally absent or extremely rare at all sites, possibly due to their refuge-seeking behaviors during the daytime when our surveys were completed [54]. In all sampling years except 2016, we obtained underwater videos along the belt transects and extracted still frames from those videos (as outlined below). In 2016, we pho- tographed the transects using a GoPro HERO4 camera by swimming at a rate of 57 minutes along the 30-m-long transect and taking a photograph every five seconds. For photographs, we used the wide angle and 4:3 ratio setting of the GoPro camera, which corresponds to ~1630 mm focal length and results in a frame area of ~0.25 m2.Citation(s)
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