Année de publication
2023

Journal

Gulf and Caribbean Research
Volume
34
Date de publication
12/2023
Nombre de pages
GCFI1 - GCFI11
DOI
10.18785/gcr.3401.17
URL
https://aquila.usm.edu/gcr/vol34/iss1/17/
Numéro ISSN
2572-1410
Catégorie HCERES
ACL - Articles dans des revues internationales ou nationales avec comité de lecture répertoriées par l'HCERES ou dans les bases de données internationales
Publication coopération et recherche SUD
Résumé

Since 2012, the benthic communities of the Pigeon Islets (Guadeloupe Island, Lesser Antilles) have been monitored biannually by the National Park of Guadeloupe using photo—quadrats. This monitoring was carried out at 12 coral reef stations distributed around the islets. The data collected from 2012 to 2021 highlight the significant events that disrupted the coral communities of Guadeloupe. Among these remarkable phenomena, an episode of coral bleaching occurred in 2019, followed by the appearance of a new coral disease, Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD), in 2020. As a result of these threats, a drop of 54% of coral cover was observed in the monitored sites, accompanied by a rise of 16% of the surface occupied by macroalgae. The protocol set up by the National Park of Guadeloupe was found to be efficient to follow the temporal dynamics of benthic reef communities.