International Journal of Marine Science, 2016, Vol.6, No.21, 1-20
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2 Materials and Methods
2.1 Coral Communities of the Patch Reef and Bank Reef Systems
Relative abundances of corals inhabiting offshore bank reefs and inshore patch reefs, spanning a 16-year period,
were obtained from CREMP (
. This dataset has
been applied to the detection of potential causal factor for regional differences in benthic communities coupled
with the WQMP (
(Maliao et al., 2008). This
previous work indicated that the CREMP monitoring strategy correlates well with the results of other sampling
efforts including the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Assessment protocol (AGRRA;
/). The CREMP
and WQMP datasets (1997-2012) were used to establish the extent of variability in coral communities and local
environment between the inshore and offshore zones and sites associated within each zone. Of the available reefs
within the two datasets we selected reefs within the lower and middle keys for three reasons. Firstly, throughout
the lower and middle keys regions there are a number of offshore bank reefs as well as patch reef formations that
spatially parallel one another (Figure 1). Secondly, for the past three years we have monitored an inshore patch
reef and an offshore bank reef at the heart of this distribution, Birthday and Acer 24 reefs respectively (Figure 1).
Thirdly, this region has been characterized by decreasing gradients of nutrients, turbidity and temperature from the
inshore to offshore zones. Differences in these factors among sites and between the inshore and offshore zones (i.e.
nutrients, turbidity, and temperature) may provide a foundation to understand the evident variation in coral cover.
Figure 1. Map of Lower and Middle Florida Keys Study Sites. Sites were either selected from the Coral Reef Environmental
Monitoring Project (Diagonal Labels) or from sites established for this study (Horizontal Labels). Sites identified with open triangles
indicate offshore sites (n=6) while those with open circles indicate inshore patch reef sites (n=6).
Reefs with greater than 10% total coral cover as of 1996 were included. Reefs with cover less than 10% as of
1996 may have already become relict or may never have supported a large community of corals and were
therefore excluded. From this criteria, five CREMP sites remained as representative of each of the two zones.
Inshore sites included Western Head, Cliff Green, West Washerwoman, Dustan Rocks (also referred to as East
Washerwoman), and Western Turtle Shoal. West Washerwoman is the largest patch reef of this set and is
considered the largest in the lower keys. East Washerwoman and Western Turtle Shoal are also considerably large
