Citation:

Santavy, Debbie, S. Jackson, B. Jessep, J. Gerritsen, C. Rogers, Bill Fisher, E. Weil, A. Szmant, D. Cuevas, B. Walker, C. Jeffrey, P. Bradley, D. Ballantine, L. Roberson, H. Ruiz Torres, B. Todd, T. Smith, R. Clark, E. Diaz, J. Bauza-Ortega, C. Horstmann, AND Sandy Raimondo. A biological condition gradient for coral reefs in the US Caribbean Territories: Part I. Coral narrative rules. ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, 138:108805, (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.108805

Impact/Purpose:

Problem: Increases in human population & coastal development have led to the rapid decline of the nation’s coral reefs. Increased sediment & nutrients entering coastal waters, habitat alteration & pollution have stressed reef ecosystems to an ecological tipping point where full recovery is not expected. Existing regulatory & management tools include chemical & physical criteria, but these have not been protective of coral reefs. Biological criteria reflect cumulative stressor impacts on the condition of biological communities and provide a better approach to evaluate decisions. Action: OW identified gaps in management tools for assessing aquatic resources & developed the Biological Condition Gradient (BCG) to allow interpretation of biological condition across spatial & temporal scales - independent of locations and assessment methods. Two coral reef BCG models were designed by employing professional expert panels & scientific data, using the process developed for fresh water ecosystems. Results: Coral Reef BCG numeric models for fish & benthic communities have been developed. The models use a common scale (1-6) to translate biological condition of reef ecosystems. These models will assist decision-makers to determine the effects of land use & development on the condition of valued resources & ecosystem services for coral reefs. Impact: The BCG models depict reef conditions to inform management, development, community, science, & policy decisions impacting coral reefs. The coral reef BCG models are transferable to other coral reefs in the Western Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific Oceans where EPA regions will use them to inform biocriteria development.

Description:

As coral reef condition and sustainability continue to decline worldwide, losses of critical habitat and their ecosystem services have generated an urgency to understand and communicate reef response to management actions, environmental contamination, and natural disasters. Increasingly, coral reef protection and restoration programs emphasize the need for robust assessment tools for protecting high-quality waters and establishing conservation goals. Of equal importance is the need to communicate assessment results to stakeholders, beneficiaries, and the public so that environmental consequences of decisions are understood. The Biological Condition (BCG) model provides a structure to evaluate the condition of a coral reef in increments of change along a gradient of human disturbance. Communication of incremental change, regardless of direction, is important for decision makers and the public to better understand what is gained or lost depending on what actions are taken. We developed a narrative (qualitative) Biological Condition Gradient (BCG) from the consensus of a diverse expert panel to provide a framework for coral reefs in US Caribbean Territories. The model uses narrative descriptions of biological attributes for benthic organisms to evaluate reefs relative to undisturbed or minimally disturbed conditions. Using expert elicitation, narrative decision rules were proposed and deliberated to discriminate among six levels of change along a gradient of increasing anthropogenic stress. Narrative rules for each of the BCG levels are presented to facilitate the evaluation of benthic communities in coral reefs and provide specific narrative features to detect changes in coral reef condition and biological integrity. The BCG model can be used in the absence of numeric, or quantitative metrics, to evaluate actions that may encroach on coral reef ecosystems, manage endangered species habitat, and develop and implement management plans for marine protected areas, watersheds, and coastal zones. The narrative BCG model is a defensible model and communication tool that translates scientific results so the nontechnical person can understand and support both regulatory and non-regulatory water quality and natural resource programs.

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