Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Impact of anthropogenic disturbances on the diversity of shallow stony corals in the Veracruz Reef System National Park

2011; National Autonomous University of Mexico; Volume: 82; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.22201/ib.20078706e.2011.1.382

2007-8706

Carla V. Gutiérrez-Ruiz, Miguel A. M. Román-Vives, Carlos Vergara, Ernesto I. Badano,

Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies

Anthropogenic disturbances may affect the development and maintenance of coral reefs by promotingdiseases and other syndromes. In turn, this may cause local decreases in coral species diversity. In this study, wecompared the prevalence of syndromes (including diseases and non-disease syndromes) and the diversity of stonycoral species between reefs located close (Sacrificios reef) and far away (Santiaguillo reef) of the port of Veracruz,Mexico. The prevalence of syndromes was higher at Sacrificios than at Santiaguillo, and it also increased with theabundance of coral colonies at the former reef. On the other hand, coral diversity was lower at Sacrificios than atSantiaguillo, suggesting that anthropogenic disturbances, besides promoting diseases and other syndromes, also lead tolocal decreases in species diversity.