ccre 2012 annual report

Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystems • Nat ional Museum of Natural His toryCCRE Annual Report 2012

Smithsonian Institution

N mag.

5 km

17˚00'N

16˚55'N

16˚45'N

16˚35'N

88˚15'W 88˚05'W

Quamino Cays

Lagoon Cays

Channel Cay

Crawl Cay

Tarpum Cay

Coco Plum Cay

Man-o'-War Cay

Twin Cays

Carrie Bow Cay

South Water Cay

Manatee CayCat Cay

Dangriga

Sittee Point

Riversdale

Jonathan Point

False Point

Mosquito CayColumbus Cay

Sandfly CayHutson Cay Cross Cay

Garbutt Cay

Stewart Cay

Ragged Cay

Wee Wee Cay

Tobacco Cay

Spruce Cay

Elbow Cays

False Cay

Bakers RendezvousGladden CaysRendezvous Cay

Douglas Cay

88ºW

17ºN

Mexico

Belize City

Dangriga

GuatemalaHonduras

0 km 100

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CCRE ANNUAL REPORT2012

National Museum of Natural HistorySmithsonian Marine Station at Fort PierceCaribbean Coral Reef Ecosystems Program

Fort Pierce, FL 34949

October 2012

Table of Contents

CCRE 2012.........................................................................................................................................................................1

Flashbacks...........................................................................................................................................................................2

Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................................................5

Research Projects .............................................................................................................................................................6

Long-term Ecological Research...................................................................................................................6

Ecology & Evolution................................................................................................................................................12Corals........................................................................................................................................12 Fish...........................................................................................................................................16Mangroves................................................................................................................................17Sponges....................................................................................................................................19 Other Invertebrates...................................................................................................................21Dinoflagellates.........................................................................................................................26

Anthropogenic Influences on Ecosystems........................................................................................................28

Diversity and Species Conservation.....................................................................................................................36

Contributions 2012 .......................................................................................................................................................41

Participants 2012 ..........................................................................................................................................................42

Photograph & Art Credits ..........................................................................................................................................44

CCRE 2012

In 1972, two Smithsonian scientists first set foot on Carrie Bow Cay and made arrangements to use the island as a field station (see page 39). The ensuing 40 years have been a period of important advances in coral reef science, as well as dramatic changes to coral reefs worldwide. In this time, the research program known first as Investigations of Marine Shallow-Water Ecocsystems (IMSWE), later renamed Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystems (CCRE), has sought to apply a multi-disciplinary, long-term approach to understanding the ecology and evolution of shallow marine water plants and animals, resulting in an impressive body of work and 930 scientific publications. It is rare to find a research site with over 40 years of observations on coral reef environments, and the CCRE Program is committed to supporting a platform for continued long term observa-tions that address the Smithsonian’s Grand Challenge of Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet. In addition to continued oceanographic monitoring efforts within the Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity Program (CARICOMP, see page 9), CCRE and its collaborators now conduct bi-annual reef assessments to study the efficacy of marine protected areas, and are engaged in a long term demographic study of threatened reef-building corals. As a site for visiting scientists, Carrie Bow Cay Field Station continued to be active in 2012, with over 1200 visitor days from 82 scientific visitors. Additionally, over 30% of research dives logged at the Smithsonian Institution were from Carrie Bow Cay, reaching a total of 875. Many questions loom as the fate of coral reefs worldwide remains uncertain. Carrie Bow Cay Field Station is an important venue for this research and will continue to stay busy in the coming years.

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Flashbacks1971 • National Museum of Natural History’s I.G. Macintyre (geology & sedimentology), W. Adey, P. Kier, T. Waller (paleobiology), A. Dahl (botany), A. Antonius (postdoctoral fellow, invertebrate zoology), M. Rice, and K. Ruet- zler (invertebrate zoology) found the program Investigations of Marine Shallow Water Ecosystems (IMSWE).1972 • IMSWE search party identifies Carrie Bow Cay on the barrier reef of Belize as ideally located and affordable site for long-term, collaborative field research on tropical coastal ecosystems • Establishment of principal reference transect across the Belize barrier reef just north of Carrie Bow Cay1974 • Hurricane Fifi destroys laboratory structures, uproots coconut trees, and reduces the surface area of Carrie Bow Cay by about one third, to 0.4 hectare. 1975 • EXXON Corporation provides grant for study of the coral reef ecosystem at Carrie Bow Cay. • Marine and terrestrial post-hurricane surveys.• Establishment of all-manual meteorological station. 1976 • Refinement and calibration of profiles and maps with the aid of vertical aerial photographs taken by Royal Sig- nals Detachment helicopter • Introduction of aerial photography by helium balloon for community mapping • Submersible tide recorder installed at Carrie Bow Cay concrete dock. 1977 • Field trip to Carrie Bow Cay by participants of the Third International Coral Reef Symposium.• Aerial and underwater surveys expanded to cover the entire barrier reef of Belize • Geology team drills first cores to determine reef history • EXXON’s The Lamp publishes article on company-sponsored research at Carrie Bow Cay (“Where seaworms glow..”).1978 • Hurricane Greta destroys Carrie Bow Cay field station. 1979 • Post-hurricane survey and rebuilding of laboratory with several improvements • Count of participating scientists and of published scientific contributions both pass the 50 mark; 23 scientific institutions are now collabora- ting with NMNH. 1980 • EXXON Corporation funds new initiative: comprehensive study of a western Atlantic mangrove swamp ecosystem, now known as SWAMP (Smithsonian Western Atlantic Mangrove Program) • Mapping of Twin Cays, principal site of SWAMP, by aerial photography and ground truthing.1981 • Initiation of Art in a SWAMP project where scientific illustrators and scientists collaborate in analysis and picto- rial rendition of mangrove communities in time and space • Employment of H. Edgerton underwater time-lapse camera with strobe light (on loan from the inventor) to record day-night activity in benthic communities • Vibracoring at Twin Cays to determine internal structure and development.1982 • Publication of The Atlantic Barrier Reef Ecosystem at Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, 1: Structure and Communities. Smithsonian Institution Press (K. Ruetzler & I.G. Macintyre, eds.). 1983 • New weather protected and enlarged seawater system for laboratory experiments installed on Carrie Bow Cay • Series of extremely low tides at noon time were observed to have catastrophic effects on reef and mangrove organisms. 1984 • First automated weather station installed at Twin Cays • Cooperation with Belize Government identifying coastal marine areas suitable for natural resource conservation • Busiest year since program start: 8 months con- tinuing laboratory operation for 45 research staff. 1985 • First year of operation of Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystems (CCRE), a new program of the National Museum of Natural History. It replaces the old IMSWE project and supplements the ongoing SWAMP program which is supported by a renewed annual grant by the EXXON Corporation. 1986 • Renovations on Carrie Bow Cay to accommodate dry-laboratory space, added living quarters, and boat, diving, and laboratory equipment • Mangrove vegetation map for Twin Cays completed • Published scientific contributions pass the number 200.1987 • Record visitation of Carrie Bow laboratory, 120 total: 90 scientists and assistants; others dignitaries, including the Prime Minister of Belize, Smithsonian administrators, and media people working on documentaries and news-related productions • Continued facility renovation, including addition of solar photovoltaic system, large seawater tank, two fiberglass whalers, fluorescence microscope, and time-lapse video recorder with underwater camcorder.

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1988 • Mangrove workshop for 37 EXXON-SWAMP scientists at Solomons, Maryland, entitled A Mangrove Ecosystem: Twin Cays, Belize. 1989 • Science as Art exhibit at the Smithsonian’s S. Dillon Ripley Center displays scientifically important and aesthetically pleasing products from SWAMP mangrove research, such as community drawings, paintings, photographs, and sculpture-like epoxy casts of soft-bottom animal burrows • Vandalized and malfunctioning weather station reconditioned and relocated to the Carrie Bow field laboratory • Increasing problems with anthropogenic stresses at research sites, such as heavy tourist visitation, garbage dumping, and clear-cutting mangrove trees. 1990 • CCRE-SWAMP program represented at first Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity workshop, Jamaica, CARICOMP is a program for Caribbean-wide monitoring of environmental quality in reefs, mangroves, and seagrass meadows. 1991 • Belize Forestry Department helps stopping disturbances to SWAMP research sites. Belize Department of Natural Resources reviews legislation with intention of declaring Carrie Bow Cay - Twin Cays area protected research site • CCRE-SWAMP program staff participates in developing Belize Tropical Forestry Action Plan and helps designing Institute for Ecology to be based in Belmopan. 1992 • CCRE-SWAMP researchers produce video documentary on mangrove swamp biology • Unprecedented, severe problem with hydrozoan stings to snorkelers and divers in the Carrie Bow area traced to microscopic siphonophorans • CCRE-SWAMP staff and Belize Fisheries Department and Agriculture representatives conduct first workshop for Belize high-school teachers entitled Mangrove Conservation through Education • CCRE-SWAMP lecture series started in Belize City, co-hosted by Belize Audubon Society • CCRE officially joins the CARICOMP network and initiates monitoring program.1993 • Belize Ministry of Natural Resources grants rights to Twin Cays for mangrove research • Launching of new 8 m (25 ft) research vessel Physalia, funded by a grant from the U. S. National Science Foundation, extends research radius over most of central and southern Belize • Ivan Goodbody pioneers surveys of Pelican Cays, a tunicate heaven at SSW of Carrie Bow.1994 • Start of collaborative surveys and experimental projects in the Pelican Cays • Pelican Cays workshop, co-hosted by Candy Feller (SERC), at Edgewater, Maryland.1995 • Finalized lease with the Villanuevas of Placentia to southern portion of Northeast Cay, Pelican group, to establish a field base for future studies • Malcolm Spaulding develops plans for new integrated environmental sensing system with radio- telemetry link to the University of Rhode Island’s COASTMAP network. 1996 • Installation by Tom Opishinski of self-contained Endeco-YSI-Campbell monitoring station of meteorological and oceanographic parameters and hookup to Internet • Visit of field party from 8th International Coral Reef Symposium, Panamá. 1997 • Celebration of the 25th birthday of the Carrie Bow Marine Field Station • New U. S. National Science Foundation grant allows purchase of a second 8-m (25 ft) boat to back up the heavily used Physalia (under construction) • International team of seven expert systematists conducts workshop at Carrie Bow Cay to quantify the unusually high sponge diversity of the Pelican Cays • Number 500 reached in CCRE scientific contributions • Carrie Bow Field Station, including laboratories, weather station, kitchen, and living quarters is consumed by an accidental electrical fire which was apparently sparked by a short in the wiring and aided by dry, termite-riddled lumber and strong northerly winds. Luckily, no-one was hurt. 1998 • Island clean-up and design for new field station completed. Construction work initiated but delayed by flooding and coastal erosion from hurricane Mitch • Completed editorial work on CD-ROM containing over 100 represen- tative CCRE scientific papers that resulted from research at Carrie Bow Cay • Cosponsored Smithsonian (STRI) exhibit Our Reefs –Caribbean Connections in Belize City. Contributed large poster describing 25 years of CCRE coral reef research in Belize • Serious coral bleaching and die-off on reefs off Carrie Bow and Pelican Cays observed, partly caused by hurricane Mitch. 1999 • Rededication ceremony for the new Carrie Bow Marine Field Station, in August • BBC team (Bristol, UK) films segments for its Blue Planet TV series, including (with E. Duffy) eusocial shrimps living in sponges. 2000 • Publication of Natural History of Pelican Cays, Belize, in Atoll Research Bulletin (Macintyre & Ruetzler, eds, 2000) • Replacement of environmental monitoring station lost in the 1997 fire • Initiation of Twin Cays Biocomplexity Study funded by an NSF grant (to I. Feller & colleagues).2001 • Completion of 3-room cottage over the eastern shore of Carrie Bow Cay • Hurricanes Michelle and Iris (October) barely miss Carrie Bow Cay, causing some damage to buildings and heavy beach erosion and devastate

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(Iris, in particular) large areas in southern Belize • Signing of MoU with Belize Fisheries Department officially acknowledging the Carrie Bow Marine Field Station as a nationally recognized laboratory • Publication of Golden (50-year anniversary) issue of Atoll Research Bulletin recognizing prominent coral reef scientists through their autobiographies, several of them participants in the CCRE Program.2002 • Founding of the Smithsonian Marine Science Network (MSN), incorporating the CCRE Program and the Carrie Bow Marine Field Station • Number 600 reached of CCRE scientific contributions • Ranger Station established on southeast Twin Cays by Belize Fisheries Department to oversee South Water Cay Marine Reserve.2003 • Cristián Samper, recently appointed director of the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, visits the Carrie Bow station in July, dives on the barrier reef, and snorkels in mangroves habitats • Hurricane Claudette threatens Carrie Bow (July) and necessitates temporary evacuation • Smithsonian Secretary Larry Small visits the Carrie Bow lab in December and dives on the reefs • Twin Cays Mangrove Biodiversity Conference is held at Ft. Pierce, Florida (December), convened by Klaus Ruetzler, Ilka Feller, and Ian Macintyre, and cosponsored by Valerie Paul of the Smithsonian Marine Station at Ft. Pierce.2004 • CCRE Postdoctoral Fellowship established • Hurricane Ivan causes substantial coastal erosion of Carrie Bow Cay • Atoll Research Bulletin volume dedicated to Twin Cays Mangrove Biodiversity goes to press • Number 700 reached of CCRE scientific contributions • Carla Dietrich takes over from Michelle Nestlerode as CCRE research assistant • Addendum to MoU with Belize Fisheries Department signed, clarifying intellectual property rights and issues of bioprospecting sponges in particular • CCRE Program Administrator Marsha Sitnik (recently, administrative advisor) retires.2005 • A total of 13 hurricanes formed this season. Three category five hurricanes (Katrina, Rita and Wilma) caused substantial coastal erosion and damage to the Carrie Bow facilities. The record number of 25 named storms in the Caribbean broke the previous record (from 1933) of 21 named storms • An external scientific review of the CCRE Program was conducted and resulted in a strong endorsement of the program’s mission and accom- plishments • Over 50 new CCRE scientific contributions were published.2006 • The first Belize National Marine Science Symposium, cosponsored by Belize Fisheries and Forestry departments and the Hugh Parkey Foundation, took place and CCRE was represented with 4 talks and 8 posters, including a review of 35 years of Smithsonian Marine Science in Belize • CCRE hosted the U. S. Ambassador and 35 Embas- sy staff for a picnic, including a tour of the Carrie Bow lab facilities • More than 130 Smithsonian Asociates, North Carolina teachers, and members of the Sierra Club visited Carrie Bow for guided tours of facilties and ongoing projects • A film crew for a Discovery channel in The Netherlands worked at Carrie Bow to document Gordon Hendler’s work on newly discovered brittle-star light-sensing organs • The CCRE program and the Carrie Bow Marine Field Station, along with all other Smithsonian marine programs and facilities, took part in an external review ordered by the Smithsonian Undersecretary for Science; The efficiency and scientific productivity of the program and its field station received excellent marks.2007 • Hurricane Dean strikes Northern Belize and Yucatan, Mexico (August), Felix passed over Honduras south of Belize (September); both cause major beach erosion at Carrie Bow Cay but no damage to buildings. 2008 • The Belize Minister of Natural Resources and his staff visit our facilities and tour the Pelican Cays to view damage caused my mangrove clear-cutting in this part of the Southwater Cay Marine Reserve. 2009 • Ilka “Candy” Feller was again offered use of Light Hawk, a volunteer pilot-based organization at Lander, WY, to observe and photograph environmental damage to mangrove coast and cays. •Pro- ceedings of the first Smithsonian Marine Science Symposium highlight CCRE’s diverse contributions to knowledge of the biology and geology of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, Belize •Mike Carpen- ter retired after 25 years of service as CCRE Operations Manager and will build a new home in the woods of Georgia •Klaus Ruetzler resigned as CCRE Director after 25 years in this position (and a total 37 years as leader of the IMSWE, SWAMP, and CCRE programs). He will be followed by Valerie Paul of SMSFP.2010 • Director Valerie Paul and new staff at Fort Pierce assume responsibility for CCRE • Michael Carpenter, Zach Foltz, and Woody Lee spend three weeks on Carrie Bow Cay, for training and transition • A new CCRE website is launched: www.ccre.si.edu • U.S. Ambassador Vinai Thummalapally and five others from the U.S. Embassy in Belize visit Carrie Bow Cay on August 30, 2010 • Belize Fisheries establishes the South Water Caye Marine Reserve Conservation Zone, a no-take zone encompassing the area around Carrie Bow Cay (www.swcmr.org).

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2011 • Carrie Bow Cay recieved major infractructure improvements, including 10 kw diesel generator, improved photovoltaic system, air compressor for SCUBA, and composting toilets • CCRE contibutions list reached #900 • Randi Rotjan, Peter Gawne, Jay Dimond, Scott Jones, and Zach Foltz initiated 24 permanent reef transects, establishing a long-term reef monitoring program to assess the effects of the SCWMR no-take zone • CCRE director, Valerie Paul, along with Raphael Ritson-Williams, Scott Jones, and Nicole Fogarty receive an award from the Smithsonian Endowment Program for “Population dynamics of threatened Caribbean acroporid corals at Carrie Bow Cay, Belize.” • Tropical Storm Harvey forces evacuation and makes landfall in Belize, no damage was caused to the station.2012 • The CCRE program celebrates its 40-year anniversary since Drs. Klaus Rutlzer and Arnfried Antonious

happen upon Carrie Bow Cay and secure an agreement to use it for field operations • Hurricane Ernesto threatened Belize in early August, theatening to force evacuation of the island; the storm tracked north and caused no dam-age to the island. • Sherry Reed assumed responsibilities as Dive Safery Officer for the CCRE program • Over 30% of the Smithosonian’s logged dives were completed in the waters surrounding Carrie Bow Cay, a total of 875 dives.

Acknowledgements

Our research is hosted by the Belize Fisheries Department and we thank Ms. Beverly Wade and Mr. James Azueta and staff for collaboration and issuing permits. The owners and staff of Pelican Beach Resort in Dangriga pro-vided logistical support for our fieldwork.; Earl David and his fine staff provided boat transportation as well invaluable advice and support. Numerous volunteer managers helped run the field station and assisted in research activities; we greatly ap-preciate their many efforts: Tom Pezzella, Joel & Linda Moore, George & Jeanne Scheff, Gary Peresta, Jim Taylor & Tanya Ruetzler, Jonathan Hootman, Jerry & Sandy Alanko, Ed & Bonnie James, Greg & JoAnn Dramer, Carl & Ginger Hansen, Craig Sherwood, Keith & Shirley Parsons, Mike Carpenter, Alan Campbell, and Daniel Gouge. Back in Fort Pierce, we sincerely thank Joan Kaminski for administrative advice and assistance with many fund management tasks. Our DSO, Sherry Reed was very helpful in assisting dive operations at Carrie Bow. Many thanks to Laura Diederick for her editorial eye, her expertise in educational outreach, and moral support. In Washington, Klaus Ruetzler and Mike Carpenter were always willing to share wisdom stemming from their many years of experience in Belize. A number of people at NMNH were always willing to answer question: Charmone Williams, Marty Joynt, Sue Fruchter, Carol Youmans, among many others. We also thank the Smithsonian offices of the Undersecretary for Science and the Director of the National Museum of Natural History for continued support. The CCRE program is supported by Federal funding complemented by the Hunterdon Oceanographic Re-search Fund.

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Carrie Bow Cay Field Station. Photo: Candy Feller

Long Term Ecological ResearchSouth Water Caye Marine Reserve Long-term Atoll Monitoring Program (LAMP)

Robin Coleman

The Wildlife Conservation Society’s vision is a Belize Barrier Reef System that supports healthy, vibrant coral habitats hosting hundreds of species within a broader seascape sustained by a highly effective, locally sup-ported fisheries management regime. The South Wa-ter Caye Marine Reserve (SWCMR) is one of seven marine reserves which has been designated as part of the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System World Heritage Site. The SWCMR includes important spawning aggre-gation sites for the endangered Nassau grouper and is home to many other reef species, including marine tur-tles and sharks. It is also a great contributor to two of the most important economic activities in Belize: tour-ism and fisheries.

The Marine Protected Area (MPA) system is expected to contribute to sustainable fisheries by providing ref-uge areas that allow for species reproduction and ulti-mately, the replenishment of adjacent fished areas. De-spite Belize’s impressive network of MPAs, coral reef

health continues to decline, and monitoring results of target conservation species show only slight improve-ments in their populations. The paramount threat to the reserves is overfishing and illegal fishing. At the same time, unrestricted coastal and caye development is in-creasingly linked to loss of critical sea grass, coral, and mangrove habitats, through dredging, clearance of vegetation, and improper waste disposal. There is also the growing threat of climate change, as well as newly-emerging threats of offshore oil exploration and inva-sive species such as the lionfish.

It is essential to strengthen marine reserve management and reduce these stresses through improved surveil-lance and enforcement, increased stakeholder engage-ment, improved fisheries management, and expanded field monitoring to evaluate the effectiveness of inter-ventions and inform management. WCS aims to expand management capacity at SWCMR by assisting reserve staff in implementing the management plan, in particu-lar to strengthen monitoring and enforcement.

Adapting existing WCS protocols used at Glover’s Reef Marine Reserve, two programs are now being im-plemented at the SWCMR: the fisheries catch monitor-ing which involves gathering data from fishers on their catch and the Long-term Atoll Monitoring Program (LAMP), which is designed specifically for the long-term monitoring of physical and biological parameters.

In August 2012, WCS conducted a LAMP survey at SWCMR. The aim of the LAMP is to col-lect baseline information and data over time that will be used to determine the cur-rent status and monitor trends of commer-cial fish species (distribution, density, size class structure, reproduction) and habitat quality. The information on the popula-tion dynamics of target species will also be used to develop recommendations to guide management decisions on fishing quotas, length of fishing season, size lim-its and other regulations to ensure profit-ability and sustainability of the fishery.

A total of thirty-four sites were selected as potential long-term monitoring sites. Twenty-three sites were located on patch reefs and 11 sites were located on sand flats. Of the 23 patch reef sites, 7 were located in the no-take Conservation Zone (CZ) and 16 in the General Use Zone (GUZ). Of the 11 sand algal flat sites, 7 were located in the CZ and 4 in the GUZ.

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Measuring conch during LAMP survey at SWCMR.

Data were collected on the spiny lobster (Panulirus ar-gus); queen conch (Strombus gigas); long-spined sea urchin (Diadema antillarum); five commercial finfish species (Nassau grouper Epinephelus striatus, Black grouper Mycteroperca bonaci, Hogfish Lachnolaimus maximus, Mutton snapper Lutjanus analis and Queen triggerfish Balistes vetula); and six species of parrot-fish (Stoplight Sparisoma viride, Redtail Sparisoma chrysopterum, Yellowtail Sparisoma rubripinne, Prin-cess Scarus taeniopterus, Striped Scarus croicensis and Redband Sparisoma aurofrenatum). At each site, water temperature, conductivity, salinity, depth and visibility were recorded.

Carrie Bow Acroporid Demographics Program (CBAD)

Nicole Fogarty, Scott Jones, Zach Foltz, Raphael Ritson-Williams, Valerie Paul, and Susie Arnold

Smithsonian postdoctoral fellow Nicole Fogarty and CCRE staff made significant progress on their multi-year project aimed at modeling the population demo-graphics of threatened reef-building coral species.

Acropora palmata and A. cervicornis were the dominant shallow-water corals in the Caribbean for millions of years, yet over the past 30 years losses exceeding 97% of the population have led to the listing of these species as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The loss of these species could have devastating effects on shallow Caribbean reef ecosystems and their associ-ated biodiversity because of their rapid growth and the three dimensional structure they create for other reef organisms. Despite the tremendous ecological impor-tance of Caribbean acroporids, their demographic pro-cesses are not well understood. The recent development of Caribbean acroporid microsatellite markers provides a technique to genotype individual coral colonies and to distinguish between genetically unique and clonal individuals. The specific objectives of this study are to (1) tag, map, and measure all acroporid colonies at the field site at Carrie Bow Cay, (2) genotype all mapped colonies, (3) monitor colonies to examine incidence of disease, predation, and bleaching and to identify new sexual recruits or asexually produced ramets, (4) de-termine if specific genotypes are more susceptible to disease and bleaching and how disease spreads through the population, and (5) create a matrix model to deter-

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Nicole Forgarty performs growth measurement on a colony of Fused Staghorn coral, Acropora prolifera. This coral is a hybrid and the CBAD project is the only demographic project in the Caribbean to include it in surveys.

mine the population growth at this site and its future trajectory. The first phase of mapping, tagging, and ge-notyping was completed in the summer of 2011. Five quarterly assessments have been completed, with the sixth scheduled for January 2013. Already, consider-able progress has been made and several important ob-servations include:

• The Carrie Bow Acroporid Demographics (CBAD) project is the only acroporid demographic project Caribbean-wide that examines both threatened spe-cies and their hybrid, and the only acroporid demo-graphic project in the western Caribbean. • Over 500 corals have been tagged, mapped, gen-otyped, photographed, and measured. Every 4 months each tagged coral is given a health assess-ment, measured, and photographed. In addition, new fragments and new juvenile corals (recruits) are tagged and mapped. •At least 3 potential new recruits have been record-ed, which is extremely exciting because in recent decades there has been a complete failure of acro-porid recruitment Caribbean-wide. •Disease is the primary culprit that has led to the un-precedented declines in acroporids since the 1980’s. In the first year of this study, a baseline was created 3 months prior to a major disease outbreak and coral bleaching event. During this event, the reef saw sub-stantial mortality and the loss of entire genotypes.

The recovery of individual colonies with resistant genotypes to this mortality event is now being fol-lowed.•No other monitored acroporid site in the Carib-bean is as reliable for the annual spawning repro-ductive event as Carrie Bow Cay. During the first two spawning seasons, over 100 observations of setting (when the gamete bundle becomes visible) and/or spawning of tagged acroporid colonies in the CBAD project were made. •Currently, this population has very few acroporid eating snails, which is one of the primary causes of mortality in the Florida Keys population. Anecdotal evidence from other sites in Belize suggests that the snails are becoming more prevalent. This site will be closely monitored in the coming sampling peri-ods to determine if snails are increasing in number.

CCRE South Water Caye Marine Reserve Reef Assessment Program

Scott Jones, Randi Rotjan, Zach Foltz, Peter Gawne, and James Dimond

This year marks the second full year that CCRE staff and collaborators from the New England Aquarium have implemented the South Water Caye Marine Reserve Reef Assessment Program. This project is directed at

assessing effects of the no-take Conservation Zone around Carrie Bow Cay on recovery of fish and coral populations. Permanent tran-sects were established in June 2011 inside (12 transects) and outside (12 transects) the area’s boundary. Most monitoring plans measure the diversity and abundance of key reef organisms; some of the best programs also assess biomass of benthic reef builders and fishes. We have de-signed our program to assess similar ecologi-cal metrics, so as to be cross-compatible with historical and simultaneous efforts elsewhere in Belize and the western Atlantic Ocean. However, we have also added some innova-tive and critically important assessments that yield information about key ecological rates and states that are thought to contribute to reef resistance, resilience, and recovery in the face of negative impacts. Rates include the grazing rates of herbivorous parrotfishes and surgeonfishes. Benthic states include scler-

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A diver completes a coral transect in which each hard coral within a 1 x 25m belt is identified and assigned to size class.

actinian coral health status as well as recruitment and growth dynamics. This plan will enable more compre-hensive ecological monitoring, and inform models of reef dynamics that will be used to generate new insights into reef community structure in response to different reserve management regimes. This study is designed to take advantage of the strengths and capabilities of the Carrie Bow Cay Field Station and produce important information that will be applied to habitat management in the newly formed SWCMR no-take area.Results to date show that:

• Hard coral cover is holding steady at ~10%, sup-ported by data collected via 2 methods: transects and photoquadrat analysis• As of yet, there are no obvious reserve-level ef-fects on benthic structure•There are some very interesting, reef-wide tempo-ral changes in fish communities (e.g. a spike and then rapid decline in Canthigaster rostrata), but the drivers of these changes are not yet clear• Some coral species that were seen in the past de-cade (e.g. Mussa angulosa) have not been observed at all since the monitoring program has begun•Beginning in the Spring of 2010, invasive lionfish detection has gone from rare sightings with small individuals to extremely common sightings with large individuals

CARICOMP

Karen Koltes, John Tschirky, Stephanie Rihl, and Hanae Spathias

Monitoring surveys were conducted in June 2012 un-der the Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity (CARI-COMP) program. CARICOMP was launched at Carrie Bow Cay in 1993 as part of a regional scientific effort to study land-sea interaction processes; to monitor for change on a local and regional scale and distinguish anthropogenic change from natural variation; and to provide appropriate scientific information for manage-ment. Standardized, synoptic measurements are made in the three primary Caribbean coastal ecosystems of mangroves, seagrasses and coral reefs together with relevant oceanographic and meteorological measure-ments. In addition to the standard CARICOMP mea-surements conducted at CBC, enhancements to the protocols include photo-documenting and measuring octocorals to improve estimates of their population dy-namics, light intensity measurements on the forereef and more recently, measurements of water flow.

Over the past year, development continued on a simple, inexpensive technique for monitoring water movement in shallow, nearshore ecosystems. The technique was developed in response to long-term CARICOMP data that indicated a significant decline in water clarity since monitoring began at CBC. While turbidity events were strongly correlated with wind direction, movement of

water masses only could be inferred be-cause of lack of data on water movement. To address the issue of the source of turbid water along the reef tract, a prototype cur-rent meter was developed in 2010. One current meter was deployed in the channel south of Carrie Bow Cay (2m above the substrate in a total water depth of 4m) and a second one the CARICOMP site on the inner forereef (approximately 1m above the substrate in 12m total water depth). Water flow is recorded every 90 seconds.

Field trials of the prototype current meter demonstrated that the direction of water flow could be determined using fairly sim-ple mathematical computations. Water velocity, however, could be assessed only qualitatively. To derive current speeds, calibration of the current meter was neces-sary. Coarse calibrations were carried out in the fall of 2011 using a Gurley current

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Figure 1: Calibrations of the current meter in the Annapolis Naval Academy test tank, April 2012. The laboratory trials revealed that the current meter can record

speeds > 50 cm/s.

meter submerged in a shallow stream flow. In April 2012, more sophisticated calibrations were conducted in the 120-foot towing test tank at the Annapolis Naval Academy (Figure 1).

Field trials also revealed that maximum current flows, particularly those associated with ebbing spring tides in the channel south of Carrie Bow Cay, exceeded the prototype current meter’s upper limit. To increase the maximum threshold for recording current velocity, the design was modified in 2011 by adding weights to in-crease resistance in higher rates of flow. Field trials with a series of graduated weights showed these modi-fications were able to significantly increase the maxi-mum velocity that could be recorded as well as allow the current meter to be tailored to the range of flow rates in local current regimes. Refinements to the mathemati-cal algorithms generated by the Annapolis test tank data continue, but it appears that current velocities of up to 50 cm/s can be recorded.

Preliminary results indicate that the dominant flow of

water both above the substrate at the CARICOMP site on the inner forereef and in the channel south of CBC is primarily in a south-southwesterly direction (Figure 2). This is consistent with the geomorphology of the coastline as well as circulation of the counter-current gyre in the Gulf of Honduras. Preliminary estimates indicate that peak current speeds exceed 50 cm/s in the channel, particularly on ebbing spring tides. Analysis of data from February-March 2012 indicates that water flow 1m above the inner forereef at the CARICOMP site averages nearly due west at <5 cm/s. The highest current velocities (20-25 cm/s) are observed in occa-sional north-flowing currents.

The data now being collected represent the first instance of a continuous, long-term record of water flow being generated in the vicinity of Carrie Bow and likely along the entire MesoAmerican Barrier Reef system. These estimates, in turn, will be valuable not only to studies of water quality but to determining potential sources and sinks of larvae and other resource management infor-mation needs.

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Figure 2 - Current vector plot that displays the frequency and velocity of current speed.

Carrie Bow Cay Environmental Monitoring System (EMS)

Tom Opishinski

The Environmental Monitoring System at Carrie Bow Cay is a fully automated system that measures oceano-graphic (temperature, salinity, turbidity, water level, pH, and dissolved oxygen) and meterological conditions (air temperature, wind speed/direction, relative humid-ity, atmospheric pressure, rainfall, and solar radiation) every ten minutes. Data acquisition of both systems is managed automatically by a data-logger and transmit-ted by radio to a server on the mainland. Current and historical data are publically available online atwww.ccre.si.edu. The EMS is an important resource for researchers, scientists, and resource managers as it is the only system continously monitoring both oceano-graphic and meterological parameters on theMesoamerican Barrier Reef. As such, a rigorous main-tenance, calibration and sensor monitoring program is followed to maintain optimal operation of system com-ponents and accuracy of the sensors. The 13-year data-set has contributed to new and existing research stud-ies, publications, and management programs for both Smithsonian researchers and an increasing number of organizations in the region.

Metereological sensor tower that air temperature measures wind speed/direction, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, rainfall and solar radiation.

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Ecology & Evolution

Corals

Community Dynamics in the Central Shelf Lagoon of the Belizean Barrier Reef

Richard B. Aronson and Ian G. Macintyre

An earthquake north of Roatán, Honduras in 2009 had a catastrophic impact on the reef communities on the un-cemented rhomboid shoals in the central shelf lagoon of the Belizean barrier reef. Approximately half of 21 ben-thic reef communities that we had surveyed before the earthquake were eradicated by slope failure during the tectonic event. Ecological dynamics that had played out over the previous 23 years, including the mass mortali-ties of two sequentially dominant coral species, Acro-pora cervicornis and Agaricia tenuifolia, and an oppor-tunistic increase in the cover of the encrusting sponge Chondrilla caribensis, had no impact on the outcome in areas of slope failure. Those dynamics did, however,

determine the benthic composition of reef areas in the rhomboid shoals that remained intact, meaning that the history of those reefs will likely influence recovery in the failed areas. Geological analysis of the reef frame-work yielded a minimum return time of 2000–4000 yr for this type of high-amplitude event. Our team began a new phase of monitoring on the rhomboid shoals, the goal of which will be to observe the post-earthquake dynamics of the affected reef slopes.

Chemical Signals in Coral Cpawning Precision

Nicole Fogarty

The synchronous release of coral gametes is very im-portant to replenish degraded coral reefs. Previous studies have demonstrated that differences in spawn-ing times of only 15 minutes during the annual coral reproduction event can greatly reduce the chance of fer-tilization. There appears to be a hierarchy of cues that corals use to synchronize the release of gametes. It has

been suggested that corals use seawater temperature and so-lar irradiance to cue on the same month, the full moon to cue on the same day, sunset to cue on the same hour and per-haps a chemical cue (i.e., pheromone) to spawn within min-utes of conspecifics. Only a few stud-ies have isolated sex steroids during coral spawning, but the exact function of many of these sterols is not clear. Estradiol, E2 gluc-uronide, and testos-terone glucuronide have been found to peak in coral tissue during the weeks

Florida Tech doctoral student Lauren Toth surveys coral recruits on a reef-slope in the rhomboid shoals that failed in the 2009 earthquake

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prior to spawning. Twan et al. (1999) found that E2 was higher than E2 glucuronide throughout the year with the exception of the spawning period where E2 gluc-uronide exceeded E2, suggesting the potential role E2 glucuronide plays in late gametogenesis, final oocyte growth, and the movement of egg and sperm into bun-dles and toward the polyp’s mouth. In soft corals pro-gesterone has been observed to be higher in females, while testosterone (T) was higher in males and peaked prior to spawning. E2 and E2 glucuronide have been found in the seawater just prior to and during spawning with concentrations three times higher near female col-onies than the surface seawater suggesting an important role of communicating gamete release with conspecif-ics. Despite the potential for sex steroids to be an im-portant aspect in coral spawning synchrony, no one has tested them to determine if they induce spawning. One aspect of my Marine Science Network post-doc-toral fellowship is to identify the pheromone that is

responsible for spawning synchrony. To test if these compounds can induce corals to spawn, two ripe coral fragments from a single colony were collected, brought into the laboratory, and placed in buckets. When the coral was observed to set, either a treatment or a control was added to the paired corals. The treatments includ-ed the compounds extracted from the sea water during spawning from the previous year or a cocktail of syn-thetic sex steroids composed of E2, T, E2 glucuronide, and progesterone. Although the sex steroid cocktail and seawater extracts were found to induce spawning earlier than the control in the first few replicates, this pattern dissolved with further replication. What we have learned from this research is that the pheromone involved in spawning synchrony is far more complex than originally expected. It is either a compound found at extremely small concentrations that even our sophis-ticated chromatography equipment cannot detect or that many compounds are acting synergistically to cue the coral to release their gametes.

Gamete bundles emerging from individual polyps in a colony of Montastrea prior to spawning.

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Bridging phenotypic plasticity and ecological speciation in a gorgonian coral: a genome-wide approach

Juan A. Sánchez

An important question in evolution is whether pheno-typic plasticity, in response to contrasting environments, can lead to ecological speciation. Phenotypic plastic-ity allows species to thrive at different environmental conditions by responding with near optimal changes in phenotype. But, can phenotypic plasticity provide the initial seed for ecological speciation? Phenotypic plas-ticity can impede diversification since a single genotype is supposed to give rise to different phenotypes. How-ever, large philopatric populations that are consistently in different habitats are exposed to different environ-mental challenges for which the same genotype cannot be at the optimum adaptive peak. This promotes diver-gent selection across the habitats, which is the prerequi-site to ecological speciation. Divergent selection should then leave genetic signatures in morphotypes that can be detected with genomic scans. In this proposal, we aim to test if different environments have induced un-derlying adaptations in a Caribbean gor-gonian coral, where habitat preferences impose a change in morphology and also are associated with changes in the type of obligate pho-tosynthetic endo-symbiont harbored by the gorgonian.

Coral reefs are rou-tinely characterized as among the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. While the extraordinary di-versity of coral reefs is clear, there is no consensus regarding the processes that generate it. We aim to examine how lo-cal adaptation and

ecological speciation operate to generate habitat relat-ed diversification among Caribbean octocorals, using Pseudopterogorgia bipinnata(=kallos) as model sys-tem, and how the symbiosis between octocoral and di-noflagellate algae within the genus Symbiodinium (B1) is a key component of that diversification. Recognizing this diversity and understanding how it has been gen-erated and maintained, is crucial to our understanding of the biodiversity, conservation and management of coral reefs and to our understanding of how reefs will respond to environmental change.

Habitat related genetic structure in host (octocorals) and symbiont populations will be characterized using genome-wide scans for single nucleotide polymor-phisms (SNPs), which will be indexed in genome or-der thanks to an octocoral reference genome currently being sequenced. Population genomics will be used to identify regions across the octocoral genome, where genetic differences in morphotypes can be attributed to selection in different environments; a signal that should be lost when comparing adjacent populations in the same habitats. As in other cases of ecological specia-tion, geographical barriers may multiply the diversifi-cation event as parallel evolution may occur in isolated

The Caribbean octocoral, Pseudopterogorgia bipinnata near Carrie Bow Cay.

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populations. Collections will be made in two distant populations of P. bipinnata-kallos (Belize-Carrie Bow Cay-CBC, Bahamas, Panama-Bocas del Toro, Colom-bia-Tortugas Bank) and genetic differences among sites and morphotypes will be analyzed in a population ge-nomics approach to determine the role of geographi-cal isolation in the process. Genetic-cross experiments (F2 progeny: F1-back cross) will be done to assess the genetic linkage map and to be able to follow selection hotspots along the gorgonian coral genome and deter-mine how host-symbiont selectivity affects habitat ad-aptations. Dozens of P. bipinnata colonies have been tagged in CBC in order to find large females naturally occurred F1 progeny, which will allow us to get the F1-back cross needed for population genomics.

This project will contribute to speciation theory by testing a mechanism where species can originate with-out geographical barriers. It will enlighten the role of plasticity, environmental gradients, and photosynthetic symbionts as major evolutionary forces.

Chemical cues from marine bacteria induce the settlement of coral larvae

J.M. Sneed, R. Ritson-Williams, V.J. Paul

Coral reefs are declining worldwide and one key to the survival of endangered coral species is their ability to recruit to appropriate surfaces during the larval settle-ment stage of their life cycle. Coral larvae often exhibit a preference for crustose coralline algae (CCA) when choosing suitable substrata for settlement and meta-morphosis. However, the mechanism by which they identify these surfaces is unknown.

Recent studies suggest that bacterial biofilms are play-ing a role in the selection of settlement substrata by some coral species. At Carrie Bow Cay we examined the settlement response of the threatened coral Acropora palmata to biofilms of 27 individual bacterial strains isolated from the surfaces of CCA. Several of these bacterial strains increased larval settlement while oth-

Newly settled A, palmata on the CCA Hydroliton boergesenii; biofilms on CCA can affect coral settlement

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ers did not, indicating that certain strains may be impor-tant when larvae are choosing settlement substrata. We previously determined that treating naturally biofilmed tiles with antibiotics does not affect the settlement re-sponse of A. palmata larvae, indicating that these corals do not respond to biofilm bacteria in general, but rather are cuing in on specific bacterial strains associated with CCA surfaces.

To understand whether the larvae of A. palmata are re-sponding to chemical or physical properties of the in-ductive bacteria we extracted the organic compounds from one inductive bacterial strain and exposed the lar-vae to these extracts in the absence of any other settle-ment substrata. The extracts induced as much larval set-tlement as Hydrolithon boergesenii, a species of CCA which has been identified as a facilitator of settlement for this coral. We are currently in the process of identi-fying the compound or suite of compounds responsible for this response and determining if other inductive bacterial strains produce similar chemical cues.

Fish

The complete life cycle of a coral reef fish

P. M. Buston, C. C. D’Aloia, J. E. Majoris, A. J. Rickborn et al.

Most coral reef fishes have a bi-partite life cycle com-posed of a relatively sedentary adult phase and a rela-tively mobile larval phase. While much is known about certain aspects of the adult biology and larval biology of many reef fishes, there are few cases in which the complete life cycle has been investigated from an evo-lutionary ecology perspective. (The best-studied case to date is that of the clown anemonefish, Amphiprion percula, in Papua New Guinea). We are endeavoring to understand the complete life cycle of the neon goby, Elacatinus lori, in Belize. By linking studies of adult behavior and ecology, with studies of larval dispersal, behavior, and ecology we intend to turn E. lori into a model system for testing and generating new ideas in marine evolutionary ecology.

In 2010 we made our first trip to Belize, staying at Wee Wee Cay, a few kilometers south of Carrie Bow Cay. In that year, we conducted a basic study of the distribu-tion and abundance of E. lori on the reefs around Carrie Bow Cay (D’Aloia et al. 2011). In 2011 we stayed at Wee Wee Cay once more, and conducted studies settler

habitat prefer-ences (Majoris et al. in prep.) and larval dis-persal over short distances (D’Aloia et al. in prep.) around Cur-lew Cay. In 2012, we were lucky enough to stay at Car-rie Bow for a couple of won-derful weeks. This year, we focused on the adult biol-ogy of E. lori, investigating

A neon goby, Elacatnus lori near the opening of a tube sponge.

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adult life history transitions (Rickborn et al. in prep.) and the collecting preliminary data on the sponge - fish symbiosis (Rickborn et al. in prep.).

This project is shaping up really nicely and we hope to be able to fill you in with all the results in the forthcoming years. Look out for the following publications:

D’Aloia CC, Majoris JE, Buston PM. 2011. Predictors of the distribution and abundance of a tube sponge and its resident goby. Coral Reefs 30: 777-786.

D’Aloia CC, Bogdanowicz SM, Majoris JE, Harrison RG, Buston PM. In prep. A simple rule of thumb ex-plains larval retention and predicts larval export in a coral reef fish.

Majoris JE, D’Aloia CC, Buston PM. In prep. Settler preferences and post-settlement processes combine to explain the distribution of a sponge-dwelling goby.

Rickborn AJ, Wong MYL, D’Aloia CC, Majoris JE, Buston PM. In prep. Possible causes of positive cor-relations between body size and microhabitat size in a coral reef fish.

Rickborn AJ, Wong MYL, Majoris JE, D’Aloia CC, Buston PM. In prep. Life history transitions of the neon goby Elacatinus lori.

MangrovesThe assembly of arboreal arthropod com-munities on mangrove trees.

A. J. Forde, I. C. Feller, D. S. Gruner, M. Nathan

Processes operating at multiple scales affect the com-position of communities. These processes can be espe-cially complex for metacommunities – collections of communities that are connected by dispersal. Meta-community theory predicts that when a habitat exists as isolated patches in a landscape, dispersal, patch char-acteristics, species interactions, and the pool of species present in the entire region all shape the community of each individual patch. To better understand the relative importance and interdependence of these factors, we manipulated dispersal rates and habitat patches at two

sites with differing regional species pools. The sites were located on the two largest mangrove islands that com-prise Twin Cays, 12km off the coast of Belize.

Interior areas of Caribbean mangrove islands are ideal for testing hypotheses about metacommunities. Pristine areas tend to contain small, slow-growing, nutrient-limit-ed red mangrove trees (Rhi-zophora mangle) residing in ponds or mud flats. Areas that have been disturbed by clear-cutting, however, often contain small, fast-growing trees embedded in a matrix of herbaceous plants, such as saltwort (Batis maritima). In both settings, individual mangrove trees together con-stitute a network of discrete habitat patches that sustain a diverse and characteristic group of arthropods. By com-paring the dynamics of meta-

Divers from the Buston lab collecting neon gobies near Carrie Bow Cay Field Station.

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communities on mangrove trees in both disturbed and undisturbed areas, we can start to address questions re-garding the effects of patch productivity (fast vs. slow growing trees), as well as effects of disturbance history. Research on factors that shape arthropod communities in mangrove forests is not only of academic interest but also stands to inform conservation efforts. Arthropod herbivores can significantly alter plant growth, canopy cover and nutrient cycling in mangrove ecosystems. Predators of arthropod herbivores can also exert in-direct effects on mangrove growth. The study of ar-thropod community dynamics has benefited mangrove restorations in Thailand and stands to improve the man-agement of mangrove systems worldwide.For our study of an undisturbed system, we manipulated 48 small (approx. 1m tall) slow-growing red mangrove trees spanning a 300x50m pond on the West island of Twin Cays. The trees were not contigu-ous with any other vegetation and were surrounded by water during both high and low tides. To manipulate disper-sal we connected experimental trees to nearby stands of red mangroves using rope. We manipulated habitat quality by attaching 10 shelters (empty Lepidopter-an cocoons) to trees. Shelter addition was deemed a reasonable manipulation of patch quality based on previous work indicating that more than 70 arthropod species on Twin Cays benefit from shel-ters such as dead twigs. Additionally, we manipulated food chain length by excluding top predators (birds) using PVC frames covered in propylene net-ting. The presence vs. absence of rope, shelters, and top predators were crossed in a full factorial design.For our study of a disturbed system we selected 24 small vigorously growing red mangrove trees (approx. 1m tall) spanning a 150x50m area on the East is-land of Twin Cays. The chosen area was clear-cut in 1995, and while mangroves are recruiting, saltwort currently carpets the majority of the area. The thicket of saltwort constitutes the only route by which non-flying arthropods can ac-tively disperse between trees. Therefore, to manipulate dispersal, we removed all vegetation in a 1.25m2 area around ex-

perimental trees. We manipulated patch quality by add-ing ten shelters (6cm hollowed-out twigs) to half of the trees and crossed the presence vs. absence of saltwort and shelters.Both projects are ongoing, and we are repeatedly col-lecting the arthropods from the experimental trees as well as measuring rates of herbivory and tree growth. No data have been collected from the trees at the dis-turbed site, which were manipulated in July 2012, but we do have data from 8 and 13 months post-manipu-lation for the pristine site. Preliminary results indicate that dispersal, patch quality and top predators have in-teractive effects on total arthropod abundance, and vary in their impacts on different taxonomic and functional groups of arthropods. For example, enhancing connec-tivity of patches with rope increased the abundance of tree crabs (Aratus pisonii) but had no effect on spiders,

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The author, Alex Forde, sampling arthropods in the field at Twin Cays.

ants or herbivores. Increasing patch qual-ity by adding shelters, on the other hand, increased the abundances of ants and spi-ders, but did not affect crab abundance. While treatment effects on the abundanc-es of different groups of arthropods is in-teresting, our goal is to perform analyses on the diversity and composition of en-tire communities that are collected from trees. In the future, besides undertaking multivariate and hierarchical modeling of community dynamics, we plan to under-take two projects that will complement our current experiments. We will conduct behavior trials to elucidate the nature of interactions between dominant arthropod species, and we will establish transects of traps to quantify the relative disper-sal abilities of species that are part of the metacommunity.

Sponges

Developing a model for transmission of an infectious disease of marine sponges

Deborah J. Gochfeld, Julie B. Olson, Cole G. Easson

Sponge diseases are increasing worldwide, but no mod-els of sponge disease dynamics have been produced. The increasing prevalence and diversity of diseases af-fecting marine systems highlight the need to develop new tools to test hypotheses related to disease spread and impacts on populations and communities. We aim to develop a disease transmission model for Aplysina Red Band Syndrome (ARBS). Our specific aims are to: (1) characterize the pathogen(s) responsible for ARBS, (2) identify potential environmental reservoirs and/or vectors for transmission of pathogens to the sponge Aplysina cauliformis, and (3) use spatial demographic data to develop a conceptual model of ARBS transmis-sion at the population level. Aplysina Red Band Syndrome (ARBS; see photo above) is an infectious disease affecting Caribbean sponges of the genus Aplysina (Olson et al. 2006). ARBS is widespread throughout the Caribbean (Olson

et al. 2006, Gochfeld et al. 2007, Gochfeld et al. 2012), and we previously reported it from the patch reefs near Carrie Bow Cay (CBC), Belize, in 2008 and 2009. The present study enabled us to revisit and re-survey several patch reefs near CBC for the presence and abundance of this disease, and assess the potential mechanisms for disease transmission in the environment. Samples of Aplysina sponges affected by ARBS, as well as sedi-ment, ambient water, and swabs of the oral cavity of spongivorous fishes were collected for molecular, mi-crobiological and chemical analyses to identify poten-tial reservoirs and/or vectors for pathogen transmission.Six 10 x 2m transects were previously established on each of three patch reefs near Carrie Bow Cay and bio-diversity surveys were performed for comparison with surveys conducted in 2008 and 2009. On each transect, a combination of point intercept and band transects were performed to assess percent cover of all substrata, and abundance and diversity of sponges, corals and gorgonians. In addition, the condition of each Aplysina sponge was recorded. ARBS was found to affect both A. cauliformis and A. fulva on the survey reefs, but at a lower frequency than at our study sites in the Bahamas. For example, we found ARBS on 3.2% of A. caulifor-mis in Belize compared to 6.6% in the Bahamas in the same period.

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Aplysina Red Band Syndrome on Aplysina cauliformis. Note red bands dominated by filamentous cyanobacteria, bordering necrotic tissue

Preliminary analyses suggest that ARBS abundance is correlated with the abundance of its primary host, A. cauliformis, but is not correlated with other measures of sponge, coral or gorgonian diversity. In spite of a reported sponge mortality event on the Carrie Bow Cay forereef in 2011, our surveys on patch reefs indicated that overall sponge number and diversity did not differ significantly between 2008, 2009 and 2012. In fact, A. cauliformis and A. fulva density increased significant-ly between 2009 and 2012. ARBS was slightly more prevalent in 2012 than during our earlier surveys.We also established a 10 x 10 m2 grid on each of two patch reefs and the whole grid was photographed in 1 x 1 m2 increments to create a photomosaic. Within each grid, every A. cauliformis was mapped and measured, and the number of ARBS lesions was recorded on a map, so that spatial statistics can be used to character-ize the dispersion pattern and transmissibility of the disease on the reef. These data will be compared to a model developed with similar data from the Bahamas to determine whether it is possible to model the preva-lence of ARBS across the Caribbean basin.Using SCUBA, spongivorous fishes (angelfishes, file-

fishes, pufferfishes) were collect-ed with hand nets and transferred to large plastic bags. In the boat, swabs of the oral cavities of the fish were taken and placed into RNALater for molecular micro-biological analyses. All fish were then returned to the reef. Sam-ples of the ambient water and sediment were also collected and preserved to determine whether these may serve as reservoirs for potential pathogens.

Literature CitedOlson J.B., D.J. Gochfeld, M. Slattery. 2006. Aplysina red band syndrome: a new threat to Carib-bean sponges. Dis. Aquat. Org. 71:163-168.Gochfeld D.J., C. Schlöder, R.W. Thacker. 2007. Sponge Commu-nity Structure and Disease Preva-lence on coral reefs in Bocas del Toro, Panama. In: Custódio, M.R., Lõbo-Hajdu, G., Hajdu, E., Muricy G. (eds) Porifera Re-

search: Biodiversity, Innovation, and Sustainability. Série Livros 28. Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro. Pp. 335-343. Gochfeld D.J., C.G. Easson, M. Slattery, R.W. Thacker, J.B. Olson. 2012. Population dynamics of a sponge dis-ease on Caribbean reefs. In: Stellar, D. (ed), Diving for Science 2012. Proceedings of the American Academy of Underwater Scientists 31st Symposium. Dauphin Is-land, AL.

Drastic decline in coral reef sponges on the Belize Barrier Reef

Janie Wulff

Sponge mortality associated with a dense phytoplank-ton bloom on the southern portions of the Belize Bar-rier Reef in late summer 2011 was extreme. Because our lab has been mapping, identifying, and measuring (volume) all sponges on a set of shallow patch reefs in the Blue Ground Range at yearly intervals, beginning in 2006, we have been able to quantify sponge losses

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Divers collected spongivorous reef fishes and swabbed their oral cavities as a possible source of sponge pathogens.

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with respect to sponge biomass, number of individuals, and species. In the midst of the phytoplankton bloom, in August 2011, already 30% of the sponge biomass had been lost by comparison with a year earlier, and the net effect of this disturbance, revealed by a complete re-census 4 months later, in December 2011, was a loss of 70% of the sponge biomass. That the sponges on the Be-lize Barrier Reef appeared to be very abundant, diverse, and healthy in December 2011 underscores the great degree to which substantial sponge losses are invisible unless individuals have been followed over time. If we had not been monitoring the volume of hundreds of in-dividual sponges for some years, it would have been impossible to imagine that a major mortality event had just occurred. Rapid healing of partially killed spong-es, combined with rapid disarticulation and utter dis-appearance of skeletons of dead sponges, had entirely obscured the substantial earlier mortality. Differences in response among sponge species, ranging from com-plete loss to no effect, have resulted in striking changes in community structure. Most immediately crucial for the health of the reef system may be the abrupt loss of over 2/3 of the capacity for filtering bacteria and cya-

nobacteria from the water column. How will the next phytoplankton bloom be controlled before it becomes disastrous if the water filtering capacity for these reefs has been reduced by 70%?

Other Invertebrates

Kin structure, conflict and caste formation: the evolution of sociality in alpheid shrimp

Emmett Duffy, Dustin R. Rubenstein, Kenneth S. Macdonald, Tin Chi Solomon Chak,Sarah Born-busch

Our work at Carrie Bow Cay in July 2012 is part of a long-term research program investigating the systemat-ics, evolution, ecology, and behavior of sponge-dwell-ing snapping shrimp (Synalpheus spp.), a highly diverse group of primarily tropical crustaceans that includes the only known eusocial marine animals. We are currently funded by the NSF on a comparative study examining the evolutionary routes to, and transitions among, dif-

One of the survivors: A vase sponge Niphates digitalis. is regenerating after sufffering partial mortality.

ferent modes of social living in ~40 species of sponge-dwelling snapping shrimp. Because closely related species of Synalpheus span the gamut from pairs to eu-social colonies, and share key life history traits of both social vertebrates and insects, they represent a powerful and unusually tractable system for revealing general, unifying patterns in the evolution of animal sociality. The results from this study will provide insights into several key problems in behavioral and evolutionary ecology, such as the evolution of altruism, the roles of kin structure and conflict in the evolution of sociality,

transitions among social sys-tems, and links between social evolution and morphological and behavioral caste diversifi-cation.

Our research over the last two decades, concentrated in Be-lize but including several other sites in the Caribbean, shows that eusocial species have dom-inated the diverse and abun-dant fauna of sponge-dwelling shrimp in coral rubble for most of that time and throughout most of the region.

In July 2012 we returned to Carrie Bow (Duffy’s 14th visit) to collect social shrimp for a range of genetic, micro-scopic, and systematics stud-ies. For the first time ever, we could not find any. We quickly

refocused our efforts on documenting the change. We made extensive collections of coral rubble and associ-ated sponges and shrimp from shallow reefs throughout the Sand Bores region.

Our research documented apparent local extinction of three of the four eusocial species known from the area (Synalpheus regalis, S. elizabethae, and S. filidigitus), as well as steep declines in colony size and increases in frequency of queenless colonies of social species prior to their disappearance. Concordant with these declines, several pair-forming Synalpheus species increased in frequency. The decline in social shrimp appears to be explained in part, but not entirely, by disappearance of two sponge species favored by social shrimp, Neopetro-sia spp. And Oceanapia sp. In Belize both sponge and shrimp faunas were considerably more homogeneous in 2012 than in prior years, the differences largely reflect-ing the absence in 2012 of eusocial shrimp species, loss of their primary sponge host, and increased frequency of several pair-forming shrimp species.

Eusocial shrimp collections from Jamaica in 2012 showed similar patterns of decline in colony size and increased queenlessness compared with our prior Jamai-can collections from 2008. The decline and local extinc-tion of social shrimp may reflect declines in sponge as-semblages increasingly reported from the Caribbean, as

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Sponge-dwelling snapping shrimp, Synalpheus spp.

A “shrimp-picking” station at Carrie Bow Cay.

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well as the tumultuous changes in coral asemblages documented on the Belize reefs by Rich Aronson and colleagues. Our results sug-gest that crustaceans may provide important proxies of coral reef health.Our results show that eusocial shrimp species have declined greatly and several species ap-parently have disappeared from shallow reefs in the central part of the Belize Barrier Reef after dominating these habitats for at least two decades.Our research at Carrie Bow was covered by the New York Times Scientist-at-work blog: http://scientistatwork.blogs.ny-times.com/author/j-emmett-duffy/ http://scientistatwork.blogs.ny-times.com/author/dustin-r-ruben-stein/

Reproductive strategies of Gammaproteobacteria associated to the surface of marine nematodes

Silvia Bulgheresi

Stilbonematids are marine nematodes that are invari-ably coated with sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. As these ectosymbionts must transmit the attachment to the nematode surface to their daughter cells, we assume that the evolutionary pressure to maintain the symbiotic lifestyle shaped their reproductive strategies. On our 2011 research stay at Carrie Bow Cay we col-lected nematodes to investigate the reproductive strate-gies of the ectosymbionts found on Laxus oneistus (1) and Eubostrichus dianae (2). In the case of the L. one-istus gammaproteobacterial ectosymbiont, we provided morphometric and immunocytochemical evidence that it (1) grows in width, (2) sets a constricting FtsZ ring parallel to its long axis, and (3) divides longitudinally by default. Remarkably, confocal laser scanning mi-croscopy revealed that this newly described FtsZ ring appears not only 90° shifted with respect to model rods such as Escherichia coli, but also elliptic and discontin-

uous. From a cell biological point of view, this revealed an unexpected versatility of the gammaproteobacterial cytokinetic machinery (Leisch et al., Current Biology, in press). From a symbiosis-centered perspective, it is intriguing to speculate that ectosymbiont longitudinal fission may be induced by a molecule produced by the nematode host, similarly to host-induced cytokinesis inhibition in insect and plant endosymbionts.

As for the E. dianae nematode, we succeeded in the molecular identification of its giant, multinucleated filamentous ectosymbiont. Based on 16S rRNA-based phylogeny, it is a sulfur-oxidizing gammaproteobac-terium closely related to the other stilbonematid ecto-symbionts characterized so far. Given that specific fluo-rescence in situ hybridization probes detected not only maximum length filaments but also shorter ones, the E. dianae ectosymbiont appears to grow on its nematode host. As for its reproductive strategies, we are currently investigating if it can divide by binary fission (Pende, Leisch et al., in preparation).

Scanning electron micrograph of a Eubostrichus dianae nematode covered by its bacterial ectosymbiont.

Samples were taken by skin diving at five locations, which according to the previous studies encompassed the complete diversity so far encountered. These sam-pling locations were: Subtidal medium sand in 1-1.5 m depth on the west side of CBC (CBC); intertidal and shallow subtidal coarse sand in <0.5 m depth at a sand spit on the south end of South Water Cay (SWC); inter-tidal and shallow subtidal fine sand among mangroves and sea grass on the west side of Twin Cayes (“Candy’s Trail”, CT); subtidal fine sand in 0.5 - 1 m depth north of the Fisheries Station on Twin Cayes (FS); subtidal fine sand in 0.5 - 1 m depth at the northern passage through Cocoa Plum Cay (CP).Worms were extracted from sand samples by gently shaking and decanting in seawater and sorted live using a dissecting scope. For most of the small species it was necessary to verify their identity on slides using a com-pound microscope at high magnification. Sorting was done according to a morphospecies concept. A total of 22 species could be collected in sufficient numbers to fix specimens for light microscopy, SEM and DNA ex-traction. These species are processed in Vienna and will be described in the near future.The nematode fauna of the coarse sand at SWC is domi-nated by Stilbonematinae almost exclusively belonging to 4 large species (Laxus oneistus, Stilbonema majum, Robbea sp. 3 and Adelphos rolandi). In contrast, the fine sand samples contain small species at a much high-

Diversity and molecular phylogeny of Stilbonematinae – marine nematodes with bacterial symbionts

Joerg Ott and Renate Ott

The Stilbonematinae (Desmodoridae, Chromadoria) are a monophyletic taxon of marine nematodes remark-able for their association with ectosymbiotic chemoau-totrophic sulfur-oxidizing gammaproteobacteria. They inhabit sheltered sulfidic sands in the intertidal and subtidal being especially abundant in tropical to warm temperate sediments. The research group of the PI has studied these worms intensively for several years in the vicinity of Carrie Bow Cay. The early years concen-trated on ecology (e.g. Ott et al. 1991, Hentschel et al. 1999), the identification of the symbionts (Polz et al. 1992, 1994) and functional aspects of several model species (e.g. Schiemer et al. 1990, Bulgheresi et al. 2006, 2011, Heindl et al. 2011). In the course of these studies an extraordinary diversity of Stilbonematinae became apparent where most of the species appeared to be new to science. Only for a few species have descrip-tions been published yet (Ott et al. 1995, Ott 1997). The aim of the present research visit was to complement the existing collections to allow the description of new spe-cies in a complete and modern manner including sam-ples for molecular systematics and phylogeny.

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Differential contrast image (left), corresponding confocal laser scanning microscopy image (middle), and overlay (right) showing FtsZ (green) localization in a longitudinally dividing L. oneistus ectosymbiont cell. Scale bar is 1 μm.

er diversity. There is considerable overlap in the species composition of the three fine sand locations (CT, FS, CT), however at each location the relative abundance of the various small species differs. The stilbonematid fauna of the medium sand location (CBC) is interme-diate between the extremes in grain size and contains both the large species and some of the small species (e.g. Eubostrichus dianae) albeit in small numbers.

References:Bulgheresi, S., H. R. Gruber-Vodicka, et al. (2011). Sequence variability of the pattern recognition recep-tor Mermaid mediates specificity of marine nematode symbioses. The International Society for Microbial Ecology Journal 5: 986-998.Bulgheresi, S., I. Schabussova, et al. (2006). A new C-type lectin similar to the human immunoreceptor DC-SIGN mediates symbiont acquisition by a marine nematode. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 72: 2950-2956.

Heindl, N. R., H. R. Gruber-Vodicka, et al. (2011). First detection of thiotrophic symbiont phylotypes in the pelagic marine environment. Federation of European Microbiological Societ-ies Microbiology Ecology 77: 223-227.Hentschel, U., E. C. Berger, et al. (1999). Me-tabolism of nitrogen and sulfur in ectosymbiotic bacteria of marine nematodes (Nematoda, Stil-bonematinae). Marine Ecology Progress Series 183: 149-158.Ott, J. (1997). A new symbiotic marine nema-tode, Adelphos rolandi gen.n. sp.n. (Stilbonema-tinae), from the Caribbean Sea. Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien 99 B: 417-422.Ott, J., R. Novak, et al. (1991). Tackling the sul-fide gradient: a novel strategy involving marine nematodes and chemoautotrophic ectosymbi-onts. Marine Ecology 12(3): 261-279.Ott, J. A., M. Bauer-Nebelsick, et al. (1995). The genus Laxus Cobb, 1894 (Stilbonematinae: Nematoda): Description of two new species with ectosymbiotic, chemoautotrophic bacteria. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Wash-ington 108(3): 508-527.Polz, M. F., D. L. Distel, et al. (1994). Phyloge-netic analysis of a highly specific association be-tween ectosymbiotic, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria and a marine nematode. Applied Environmental Microbiology 60: 4461-4467. Polz, M. F., H. Felbeck, et al. (1992). Chemoau-totrophic, Sulfur-Oxidizing Symbiotic Bacteria on Marine Nematodes: Morphological and Bio-chemical Characterization. Microbial Ecology 24: 313-329.Schiemer, F., R. Novak, et al. (1990). Metabolic studies on thiobiotic free-living nematodes and their symbiotic microorganisms. Marine Biol-ogy 106: 129-137.

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Anterior end of Stilbonema majum, a large species common in coarse to medium sand. Except for the cephalic capsule the worms are covered by

several layers of bacteria.

Dinoflagellates

Seasonal Abundance of Ciguatera Causing Dinoflagellates in Belize

Pat Tester and Chris Holland

Tropical dinoflagellates in the genera Gambierdiscus, Ostreopsis and Prorocentrum produce toxins that bio-accumulate in marine food webs causing ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP), the most common non-bacterial food poisoning in the world. Of these, species belonging to the genus Gambierdiscus are thought to be the most important contributors to CFP. The focus of this year’s research was two fold: 1) Determine differences in seasonal abundances of Gambierdiscus, comparing the Jan/Feb cell concentra-tions to those seen during the April/May period and2)Validate artificial substrate sampling methods for benthic harmful algal species that cause CFP.

The data collected in January/February 2012 provided comparative information on differences in Gambierdis-cus abundance relative to April-May. Analysis of the samples from previous field seasons indicated, that in Belize, Gambierdiscus species prefer low flow, high

nutrient systems, whereas Ostreopsis species favor higher flow lower nutrient areas. Prorocentrum species appear to do equally well in both these environments.

Preliminary data confirm that Gambierdiscus species composition is similar between seasons. Gambierdis-cus was found at all sampling locations around Carrie Bow Cay, Twin Bays and Southwater Cay. A single trip was made to Douglas Cay in 2012, a habitat known for abundant Gambierdiscus cells during the dry sea-son. Abundances observed during the Jan/Feb 2012 sampling were some of the highest seen of any of our previous sampling trips to Belize.

Another major goal of this year’s work was to evaluate the most effective way to sample benthic HAB species. Artificial substrate, small uniform pieces of window screen, act as artificial seaweeds. Our question was “Will Gambierdiscus cells accumulate on artificial sub-strate in proportion to the densities found on surround-ing algae?” The 2012 sampling provided an opportu-nity to test this concept and compare seasonal data to determine if the correlation noted in April/May would be the same in different seasons.

Carefully measured pieces of window screen are an-chored with fishing weights near the bottom of the water column. These artificial substrate sampling devices are allowed to remain in place for up to 2 days before they

are collected and the benthic dinoflagellates are harvested from them. Control samples of algae were also collected from the site and harvested for BHAB species as well. The preliminary results indicate that abundances of Gambier-discus and Prorocentrum and, to a lesser extent, Ostreopsis from artificial substrate direct-ly correlate with the densities of these species on the sur-rounding macrophytes algae.

A study designed to under-stand the length of time needed for the artificial substrate de-ployment or “soak time” was also completed. A 48-hour diel study was conducted by sam-pling the artificial substrate every 6 hours to demonstrate

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Ciguaterra-producing dinoflagellate, Gambierdiscus sp.

the significance of sufficient soak time for the sampling screens. Data clearly indicated that after 24 hours the screens had become saturated with detritus and likely diatoms to make effective measurements.

The 2012 sampling also revealed a high abundance of Gambierdiscus in Douglas Cay (DC). The species com-position of this bloom is being determined and will be compared with similar blooms that occurred in 2006 and 2009 during the dry season. The 2009 bloom was heavy enough to produce a mucous net over much of the benthos. Knowing which species are most abundant during the seasonal blooms is a significant result in that not all Gambierdiscus are equally toxic. If there is a species composition differences in the dry vs wet sea-son, the likelihood of differential ciguatera fish poison-ing risk is also a strong possibility. Risk assessment of environmentally mediated BHAB blooms is a proactive way of managing resources and focusing public health resources.

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Time series of Gambierdiscus (Gam), Ostreopsis (Ost), and Prorocentrum (Pro) cell abundances associated with screens incubated at Carrie Bow Cay, Belize for 6, 12, 18, 24,

36 and 48 h on 18-19 January, 2012sp.

Anthropogenic Influences on EcosystemsStable Isotope Ecology: detecting anthropogenic sources of nutrients, understanding coral bleaching, mangrove ecology, and feeding habits of invasive fish species.

David Baker, Marilyn Fogel, Chris Freeman, and Derek Smith

Our diverse team came to Carrie Bow with a focus on three environments; 1) coral reef communities, 2) man-grove cays, and 3) microbial mat communities. The specific summaries are detailed below.

David Baker and Chris Freeman ventured to the sur-rounding reefs to collect gorgonian corals and sponges for stable isotope analysis. By measuring the isotopes of nitrogen in the animal tissues, we can ascertain the provenance of that nitrogen and thus, whether anthro-pogenic sources such as sewage are present. Our collec-tions took us from Tobacco Cay to Cat Cay and out to the southern tip of Glover’s atoll. A total of 92 samples of the sea fan Gorgonia ventalina were collected from 17 sites. The data have revealed a significant variation in isotope values among these sites, with signs of hu-man perturbation near inhabited islands and in particu-

lar a recent dredge and fill operation on a southern man-grove cay. We observed widespread sponge mortality at many sites. Samples of healthy and diseased sponges were collected for putative pathogen identification. This work is underway at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

While our field collections addressed land-based sourc-es of pollution, we were also interested in testing the effects of global climate change on marine symbioses. We brought live sea fan corals, hard corals and sponges back to Carrie Bow for a series of experiments. Using stable isotope tracers, we incubated these specimens during daylight hours to determine the effect of sev-eral parameters on the assimilation of carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen. Of note was an experiment with the hard coral Montastrea faveolata. We used this species

to ask, what is the effect of sub-bleaching thermal stress on the as-similation and translocation of the aforementioned elements between the zooxanthellae and the host? We used a portable solar powered battery system to heat a water bath through the night, which allowed us to simulate warming prior to a coral bleaching event. On the day of the experiment the corals were sealed in plastic bottles in the presence of the isotope tracers. The resulting data show that temperature has a positive effect of both carbon and nitrogen assimilation by zooxan-thellae, but that this benefit did not extend to the host. This observation implicates symbiont metabolism as being an important precursor to the coral bleaching response.

Our terrestrial team, comprised of Marilyn Fogel and Derek Smith, spent their time on Twin Cays. Dr. Fogel visited and sampled mangrove leaves from a long-term monitoring project aimed at understanding nutrient dynamics in the species. As a group, we sampled mangrove leaves and sponge epi-bionts growing on their prop roots in small channels. This sampling was conducted to test the hypothesis that nitrogen transformations by encrusting sponges may benefit fringing mangroves. Dr. Fogel and Derek Smith took samples from microbial mat communities within hypersaline ponds on Twin Cay. Sediment cores and surface mats were sampled and portions of these

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Sea fan Gorgonia ventalina on the reef near Carrie Bow Cay

samples were used to develop anoxic cultures of cya-nobacteria and sulfur cycling bacteria. These materials will also be analyzed by stable isotope analysis to better understand the biogeochemical processes that are oc-curring throughout these microbial communities. In our free time, we collected lionfish in the area using pole spears. Over 130 lionfish were sampled. The larg-est catch came from Glover’s atoll, where 67 lionfish were collected on 4 dives. We measured and sampled a small plug of muscle tissue for stable isotope analysis. These data will be added to a Caribbean wide dataset we are compiling. Here, the isotope values tell us more about what the fish are eating. With the large sample size from Belize, we are able to demonstrate that larger lionfish are feeding slightly higher on the food chain, likely taking more small reef fish and fewer inverte-brates. The fish were properly recycled. Martha did a wonderful job preparing lionfish in creative ways in-cluding pan-fried, steamed, empanadas, and meat balls.

Mangroves

Latitudinal variations in ecological stoichiometry in mangrove communities

Candy Feller

Our objective is to determine how excess nutrients in the environment affect biodiversity, population dynam-ics, ecological stoichiometry, and ecosystem function in mangrove forests along a latitudinal gradient of >2000 km and 18º of latitude from Florida to Panama. Nutrient over-enrichment is a global threat to marine environments. Nutrient over enrichment is widely recognized as one of the most serious threats to coastal ecosystems around the world. A major challenge for ecologists is to develop a predictive understanding of how nutrient loading alters the structure and function of these eco-systems. Different community components and eco-logical processes within coastal ecosystems are pre-dicted to have different patterns of nutrient limitation. Despite the critical implications of this hypothesis for mangroves, it has been tested at only a few locations: Twin Cays, Belize, Indian River Lagoon (IRL), FL, and Bocas del Toro, Panama. In these studies, we showed that increased nutrient availability affected physiologi-

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Terrestrial team in fringing mangroves on Twin Cays

cal processes and nutrient conservation patterns such that litter quality and decomposit ion rates were altered. In addition, hydrology and associated physico chemi-cal parameters influenced the interactions among these processes. These results suggested that interactions be-tween nutrient availability and hydrology will affect nutrient cycling processes, which are linked directly to carbon (C) sequestration and habitat stability, and ul-timately, to the ability of these systems to keep pace with rising sea level. Nutrient enrichment also affects mangrove growth and tissue quality, which affects the diversity of the associated mangrove fauna and animal-plant interactions. In this study, we are investigating the effects of nutrient limitation and loading on mangrove food webs and ecological stoichiometry. We hypoth-esize that: 1) mismatches in the elemental composition between mangrove trees and their fauna will constrain growth and production of associated consumers in both grazing and detrital food webs. 2) The addition of the limiting nutrient will lead to increased growth and nu-trient uptake and retention by consumers. 3) Lower lati-tude and more productive environments will have lon-ger and more diverse food chains (detectable in stable isotope ratios). The C:nutrient ratios of plant biomass are generally variable and high, especially under nutri-ent limitation, compared to animals, which have low C:nutrient ratios that are regulated homeostatically, depending on species or developmental stage. At IRL,

growth is nitrogen (N)-limited from the fringe to the dwarf forest in the interior; at Twin Cays, the fringe was N-limited, but the dwarf forest was phosphorus (P)-limited; at Bocas del Toro, the fringe is N-limited, but the dwarf is both N- and P-limited. In addition to increased primary productivity, nutrient enrichment also caused dramatic decreases in the C:nutrient ra-tios of the trees and altered the quality and quantity of herbivory. The preliminary data from these long-term experiments provide an ideal opportunity to de-termine how nutrient enrichment will affect the dis-tribution of C, N, and P in mangrove heterotrophs as well as autotrophs.

Turbidity trends and seagrass distributions in the waters surrounding Carrie Bow Cay, Belize

Charles Gallegos, Jud Kenworthy and Troels Pedersen

Seagrasses have high light requirements, so that deg-radation of water quality that limits the penetration of

photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) underwater has the potential to severely impact the survival depth and areal coverage of seagrass meadows. Seagrass sys-tems are, therefore, a sensitive indicator of habitat loss due to human impacts in the coastal zone.

Water clarity in the waters surrounding CBC has dete-riorated. Since the inception of measurements in 1993,

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Troels Pedersen installing light meter on the sea floor.

Smithsonian research assistant, Anne Chamberlain sampling mangrove fauna

horizontally sighted Secchi distance outside a shallow seagrass bed near Twin Cays has declined at a rate of 0.29 m•y-1, while the vertically sighted Secchi depth at a deep station on the fore-reef has declined at a rate of 0.52 m•y-1. Episodes of low visibility (<6 m) have al-ways occurred, but appear to be more frequent in recent years, while very clear water with visibility exceeding 18 m has not been observed since 2004.

The cause of the visibility decline has not been identi-fied. It is likely to be due to a change in amounts and/or kinds of suspended solids because visual transparency is more sensitive to light scattering than to light absorp-tion. The objectives of this work are: to quantify the relative contributions of suspended solids, colored dis-solved organic matter, and phytoplankton to light at-tenuation and visibility in the vicinity of Carrie Bow Cay; to relate properties measured in the long term CARICOMP program to inherent optical properties of the water; to improve our estimate of the light re-quirements of the Thalassia testudinum bed at the Blue Ground Range (BGR) site in Lagoon Channel, Belize; to biologically characterize the deep T. testudinum bed at the BGR to establish it as a sentinel site for assess-ing effects of deteriorating water clarity in the lagoon at Carrie Bow Cay. We visited Carrie BowCay for 1 week in December 2011 and March 2012. We mea-sured inherent optical properties, white and black disk visibility, and light attenuation at BGR, the Twin Cays CARICOMP site, the water quality monitoring site at the fore-reef, and an additional station at Cat Key where a steeply sloping bottom makes for a sharply delineated Thalassia deep edge.

This year we published a paper reporting the effect of sediment re-suspension on near-bottom light attenuation using an ar-ray of in situ light sensors with very close spacing near the sediment-water interface that included data from Carrie Bow Cay taken in 2010. We found that the light attenuation coef-ficient over 4.5 cm just above the bottom exceeded the attenu-ation found higher in the wa-ter column by a factor ranging from 1.6 to >30. The enhanced light attenuation was the least at the Belize sites, compared with measurements around Chesa-

peake Bay and coastal North Carolina, due to coarser and less organic matter in sediments there.

Mangrove peat decomposition and nutrient enrichment

Joost A. Keuskamp

Mangrove forests are highly productive systems pass-ing through large quantities of carbon. Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is consumed in photosynthesis and provides the carbon and energy needed to build up plant material. Dead plant material, largely consisting of carbon, becomes part of the soil where it decompos-es: bacteria and fungi consume the dead plant material for energy and carbon dioxide is released again to the atmosphere.On the mangrove islands in Belize, decomposition is very slow: the soil largely consists out of carbon in the form of still recognizable plant parts and therefore is classified as peat. Over the course of time, thick pack-ages of peat have formed through accumulation of dead plant material, on top of which the mangrove trees grow. Through this process, the islands surface raises up from the sea bottom, at a rate fast enough to keep pace with sea-level rise. The peat layers underlying mangrove is-lands can be several dozens of feet thick and represent an enormous storage of carbon.

Due to human activity in coastal zones, many man-groves receive increasing amounts of nutrients, such as

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Soil sampling in the field.

nitrogen and phosphorus, which are leached from ag-ricultural zones close to the coast. These nutrients of-ten cause mangrove trees to grow significantly faster, thereby consuming extra carbon dioxide. This may lead to increased peat build-up as more dead plant material enters the soil. This would facilitate keeping up with sea level rise while storing extra carbon. However, if decomposers also profit from the extra nutrients, the exact opposite could happen: The extra nutrients may help the decomposers in breaking down plant material so that more carbon dioxide is released than that it is fixed. Due to a changing microbial community even historically built up peat may be broken down, causing soil subsidence so that mangroves ultimately disappear by prolonged flooding. To study the effect of nutrient enrichment on mangrove peat decomposition, we made use of the long-term research sites that were established by Candy Feller on Twin Cayes to observe the conse-quences of nutrient amendment on herbivory, primary production, and recruitment. We took soil cores near trees not receiving extra nutrients and near trees that were fertilized with either nitrogen or phosphorus. We measured bacterial biomass, activity, respiration and potential growth rates in those cores, and repeated that after amending nutrients. The results will reveal the short and long term effects of nutrient enrichment on the peat decomposition rate in mangroves. It will also tell us if changes in microbial community will lead to the breakdown of accumulated complex organic com-pounds in mangrove peat. Combining these results with the, already known, effects of nutrients on primary pro-duction will help to predict the effect of nutrients on net peat formation and carbon dioxide emission from mangroves to the atmosphere.

Comparison of demographic performance, parasite transmission and predatory impacts of the invasive lionfish, Pterois volitans, across latitudes.

Andrew Sellers, Mark Torchin, and Gregory Ruiz

Biological invasions are a key threat to biodiversity worldwide. Predation, competition, and habitat al-teration by invasive species changes community com-position and ecosystem function. Globalization has substantially increased the rate of these biological inva-sions particularly in marine and estuarine ecosystems. Although it is clear that invasions are having significant impacts, the effects of most aquatic invasions remain

un-quantified. Once established, introduced popula-tions can become numerically or functionally dominant in invaded communities. Although effects of most inva-sions remain unexplored, it is evident that some non-native species are having significant and widespread impacts by altering ecosystem processes, impacting economies, and affecting human health. Introduced species are widely considered ‘invasive’ when they be-come superabundant in their new ranges, displace na-tive species and cause economic damage. The apparent newfound success of many invasive species is thought to stem from some fundamental change in ecological or evolutionary interactions that leads to increased vigor, population growth, or habitat expansion. The impacts of introduced species are a direct function of their de-mographic success in their new range so evaluating dif-ferences in performance provides insight as to relative impacts across native and introduced regions as well as across introduced regions. Once established, intro-duced species are often reported to be more abundant, larger, or more ‘vigorous’ relative to native conspecif-ic populations. Similarly some introduced species are abundant and considered pests in some regions while they are not in others. Understanding the factors driv-ing this variability is critical for effective management techniques and for evaluating the factors that control population growth in general, however, there exist few standards by which to judge the differential success of introduced species. Biotic resistance by predation, parasitism and competition on introduced species from native species can limit demographic success and thus impacts caused by invaders. Tropical regions are hy-pothesized to have stronger biotic interactions relative to higher latitudes and this may limit invasion success at low latitudes. Biotic resistance to invasion is a key hypothesis in invasion ecology and has been supported in some systems. While some empirical evidence from marine systems suggests that biotic interactions may be stronger at lower latitudes, the potential implications on marine invaders have not been evaluated. The recent and widespread invasion of the Indo-Pacific lionfish, Pterois volitans provides an ideal opportunity to test the hypothesis that the demographic success and preda-tory impacts are reduced and parasite transmission in-creases at low latitudes.

The Indo-Pacific lionfish, Pterois volitans, was likely introduced off the Atlantic coast of Florida in the early 1990s, presumably through releases from aquaria. It spread rapidly along the eastern coast of the United States and through the Caribbean. The lionfish is an ag-

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gressive invader in the Bahamas where it presumably reaches densities of up to eight times that of its native range Lionfish are voracious predators which can deci-mate populations of other reef fish. In the Bahamas one study found that they reduced the recruitment of native juvenile fish to coral reefs by 79% . Lionfish also have venomous spines that can inflict painful wounds which makes them a threat to public health, particularly in the fishing and tourism industries. Their venomous spines also deter most predators, which may limit predatory controls of introduced populations, however they have been found in gut contents of native grouper. There is only scarce information on parasites of lionfish in its native and introduced range. Our preliminary findings show that lionfish have accumulated native parasites in Panama but further widespread sampling is necessary to evaluate this more fully. Initial reports suggest that lionfish consume large quantities of crustaceans (as ju-veniles) and reef fishes (as adults). If in fact these fish have few consumers (predators and parasites) in the Caribbean, not only are they reducing the populations of native invertebrates and fish through predation, but

they are also converting resources into lionfish biomass which is not utilized by larger native predators.

Can we assume that lionfish will have similar demo-graphic success and impacts across the entireintroduced range? A central assumption underlying ex-otic species risk analysis models is the notion that bio-logical and ecological information gathered in a spe-cies’ native region can be applied directly to predict the response of that species throughout its invaded range. However there are few or no data from their native or introduced range to verify this assumption. While emerging reports are beginning to provide data on li-onfish diet and abundance these are generally localized studies and provide no broad latitudinal framework for comparison.

In order to do an initial evaluation of the demography, predatory impacts and potential parasite transmission of the invasive lionfish across their introduced range we compared (1) demographic performance, (2) gut con-tents (to begin to evaluate potential impacts), and (3) parasitism across latitudes.

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The Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois volitans has quickly established populations in the Western Caribbean, including Belize.

To date, we have collected and examined lionfish in Florida, Mexico, Belize, and Panama. In Belize we col-lected lionfish in four sites between November and De-cember, 2012. Our sites included Tobacco Caye, Car-rie Bow Caye, Curlew Bank, and South Cut Reef (see map). Once in the lab we examined the mouth, skin, fins, muscle tissue, and internal organs of each lionfish. The parasites that we encountered were identified to the lowest taxonomic level possible. We also analyzed the stomach contents in order to study the relationships be-tween prey and parasite diversity. In order to determine whether parasitism has an effect on lionfish fitness we recorded the condition of each individual based on its weight and length. Finally, we estimated lionfish abun-dance at each site using transects and by counting all lionfish encountered per unit time.

Holocene Sea-Level Change in the Caribbean: Implications for Geophysical Modeling and Ocean-Climate Interactions – 2012 Activities

Marguerite A. Toscano

Geologists and Holocene sea-level researchers Mar-guerite Toscano (SI Paleobiology), Juan L. Gonzalez (Department of Physics and geology, The University of Texas – Pan-American), along with marine biologists Patricia Tester and Chris Holland (NOAA National Ocean Service) spent the second half of January tak-ing a new series of deep mangrove peat cores at North Point, West island, Twin Cays. Our NOAA colleagues also took the opportunity to conduct a winter/dry season Gambierdiscus population study in the Carrie Bow Cay back-reef lagoon, at several sites around Twin Cays and at Douglas Cay (see report by Tester and Holland).

Maggie Toscano is assembling a new, high precision database of sea-level index points spanning approxi-mately 8,000 years of peat accumulation in response to the Holocene transgression over the Belize from the extensive mangrove environments and the unique deep peat deposits along the Belize Barrier Reef. This work builds upon a long-term Smithsonian-based effort to reconstruct the Belize sea-level record from mangrove peat, starting with the 1995 work of Macintyre, Lit-tler and Littler at Tobacco Range (ARB 430), the 2003 Caribbean sea-level compilation of Toscano and Ma-cintyre (Coral Reefs), and the 2004 work of Macintyre, Toscano, Lighty and Bond (ARB 510) on Twin Cays. Complementary work by Feller and McKee is increas-ing our understanding of the mechanisms of peat accu-mulation in response to sea-level change.

Our current NSF-funded study follows on our CCRE-funded 2007 fieldwork (Toscano, Horton, McKee, Macintyre) which allowed us to explore the range of environments on West Island, Twin Cays, and to col-lect two side-by-side 10-m continuous peat cores on which we completed full-core stable isotope analyses, 10 AMS radiocarbon dates and preliminary foraminif-eral assessments. In 2011 Toscano and two students took a 10-meter peat core and over 300 surface and in-faunal modern mangrove foraminiferal samples along three transects to delineate their distribution relative to elevation and tide level changes, from the mangrove fringe to the interior. Foraminiferal assemblages were to define a site-specific transfer function allowing us to interpret paleo-depth ranges of foraminiferal assem-

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The author, Andrew Sellers dissecting Lionfish in the lab at Carrie Bow Cay Field Station.

Juan Gonzalez, Maggie Toscano and Chris Holland at North Point, Twin Cays.

blages sampled in long peat cores. Although we imme-diately sectioned the long core and mixed the peat sam-ples with ethanol to inhibit dissolution of forams as the peat was exposed to air, we found that forams were not preserved at depth, so the transfer function ap-proach was not viable. Therefore we returned to Belize in 2012 to obtain a series of basal peats over the known depth range of the bedrock on Twin Cays, as well as longer cores, to determine the sea level record using a stratigraphic approach.

We had great success coring at North Point, where we obtained 10 cores and basal peats over a 5 meter elevation range. We also obtained a long core to make comparisons between the ages of individual basal peats and the in-termediate peats in the long sec-tion at the same elevations. We

visited the Pelican Cays where we were able to obtain basal peats at shallow depths for the sea level reconstruction. In the process of taking these cores we refined our hand-coring technique to in-clude reconnaissance auguring , which allowed us to revisit numerous sites previously vibracored by Macintyre in 1985 (Macintyre, Toscano, Lighty, Bond 2004, ARB) to confirm the stra-tigraphy and the bedrock depths all over Twin Cays. We also made some inter-esting discoveries about the nature of the peat at depth which defy widespread assumptions of compaction, the nature of the basal carbonate surface (and its modern analog), and the marine carbon-ate muds that precede peat formation. We have also introduced innovative lab techniques to quantify peat densities to assess compaction, and have sufficient data to evaluate the lag times of basal peat over carbonate muds vs. continu-ous peat formation in long sections.

Core showing transition at ~-10 meters from basal carbonate mud to peat deposition.

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Biodiversity and Species ConservationEstablishing a Captive Population of Caribbean Acroporids:Toward Ex Situ Conservation Techniques

Mike Henley and Abby Wood

As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, it is clear that we are in the midst of an extinction crisis, and the world’s zoos and aquariums are in a unique position to serve as repositories for threatened and en-dangered species around the world. In addition to serv-ing as stewards for these “live genetic banks,” the ani-mals and plants maintained in these populations serve as education ambassadors to their wild counterparts. With the well-documented decline in Caribbean coral populations and the subsequent addition of Acropora palmata and Acropora cervicornis to the Endangered Species List, it is imperative that zoos and aquariums maintain these struggling coral communities in much the same way that they maintain declining mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, etc. populations.

Prior to 2006, a captive population of Elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, did not exist, and captive popula-tions of Staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, were minimal. Founded by Dirk Petersen, the SECORE

Figure 1 – Collection vial with thousands of egg/sperm bundles.

(Sexual Coral Reproduction) project has been work-ing to establish the beginnings of the captive popu-lations of these Caribbean acroporids. The first few SECORE workshops were held in Puerto Rico, and today zoos and aquariums throughout the US and Eu-rope house Puerto Rican Elkhorn corals. However, we need to diversify the genetics of our captive popu-lations, ideally one day having a captive population representing various Caribbean lineages. The reliably spawning Acropora population at Carrie Bow and its marine station provide a fantastic location to continue this pursuit.

During last year’s coral spawn, our team of eight was in the midst of rearing approximately three hundred thousand larvae (total) from both Acroporid species, and even a few thousand of the hybrid, Acropora pro-lifera. Tragically, we were forced to evacuate for two days while Hurricane Harvey made its way across Be-lize, leaving the larvae to perish on the island. No settled corals remain alive from the 2011 spawning

Figure 2 – “Kreisel” system used to hold coral larvae during development.

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season; however, Dr. Mary Hagedorn was able to cryopreserve embryonic cells from A. cervicornis be-fore our evacuation.

This year, only Abby Wood (Invertebrate Exhibit vol-unteer) and I were able to return to Carrie Bow for the August 2012 Acropora spawn, with our sights once again set on A. cervicornis and A. palmata. The cor-als gave us a small scare when they didn’t spawn until night five after the full moon (the A. palmata signifi-cantly spawned that night, while only a few branches of the A. cervicornis minimally spawned). We set col-lection nets on branches of several of the A. palmata colonies, and after about 45 minutes we removed the collection cups (now full of egg/sperm bundles – see figure 1) to head back to the marine station and per-form our in vitro fertilizations. Despite two people trying to do the work that our team of eight accom-plished last year, Abby and I managed to collect and rear several thousand A. palmata larvae (many thanks go to Raphael Williams for helping us with our fertil-ization concentration that night). The fertilized eggs were then placed into our larval rearing “kreisel sys-tem” where they stayed the next few days (see figure 2) while we monitored their developmental progress (see figure 3).

Once again, we had to face a hurricane; fortunately, this year “Ernesto” turned north only hours before

we were to evacuate, and we were spared having to again leave our larvae to perish. However, rough seas prevented us from entering the water on night six, and we were un-able to collect any A. cervicornis, which likely spawned that evening. After five days of rearing the A. pal-mata larvae, we placed them in set-tlement bins with our tiles that had been in the seawater system since May. However, it was suggested to us that we try to settle our larvae directly on the crustose coralline alga (CCA) Hydrolithon boergese-nii. Once more, many thanks go out to Raphael for showing us how to identify Hydrolithon, and many thanks are also bestowed upon Jen-nifer Sneed for our field trip out to the reef flat to teach us to not only

locate the proper CCA Hydrolithon in the field, but also for showing us what CCA not to collect!

As was expected, our A. palmata larvae much pre-ferred settling directly on the collected Hydrolithon (see photo 4), though some did settle on the settle-ment tiles as well. In the end, we decided to glue the

Figure 3 – Two day old Elkhorn coral (A. palmata) larvae.

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Figure 4 – Aggregate settlement of Elkhorn coral (A. palmata) larvae on the CCA Hydrolithon boergesenii.

CCA pieces to aragonite discs for transport back to the Invertebrate Exhibit in Washington, D.C. We have counted our surviving settlers to date, and we have over 350 primary A. palmata polyps that made the transit back to the Invertebrate Exhibit. Now begins the time to be a nervous parent…

Funds for this project were generously donated by WAMAS (Washington Area Marine Aquarist Society) and the Smithsonian Marine Science Network.

Biological and chemical diversity of marine cyanobacteria from Carrie Bow Cay, Belize

Niclas Engene, Sarath Gunasekera, and Valerie J. Paul

Cyanobacteria (“blue-green algae”) are considered the most ancient group of oxygenic photosynthetic organ-isms. Over 3 billion years, this bacterial phylum has

A cyanobacteria bloom forms immediately adjancent to Carrie Bow Cay Field Station.

adapted to most habitats on the planet and is among the most abundant and geographically widespread group of prokaryotes known. Historically, the taxonomic classi-fication of cyanobacteria has been based primarily on morphological characterizations tied to morphospecies of terrestrial and freshwater specimens from temperate regions. As a consequence, the biological diversity of cyanobacteria from tropical marine environments has been almost completely overlooked. A primary focus of our research has been to uncover this biodiversity using molecular-phylogenetic methods and to enhance our understanding of systematics and evolutionary his-tory of this important group of microbes.

The marine habitats around Carrie Bow Cay have pro-vided an excellent environment to survey and explore this biodiversity. From our initial work we have detect-ed several new genera and species of marine cyanobac-teria and we are currently in the process of taxonomi-cally describing these new taxa.

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Marine cyanobacteria are also known for their prolific biosynthetic capacities to produce bioactive second-ary metabolites. Many of these bioactive molecules are potent environmental toxins, causing hazardous harm-ful algal blooms. Our research on cyanobacteria from Carrie Bow Cay has resulted in the detection and iso-lation of several known and new bioactive secondary metabolites. This work also includes the characteriza-tion of such molecules and their bioactive properties in their natural environment. Our hope is that this chemical screening in combination with our phylo-genetic studies will provide a better understanding of the taxonomic distribution of these molecules.

Cave and other cryptic shallow-water sponge communities at Carrie Bow Cay

Klaus Ruetzler

Our group was composed of Mike Carpenter (vol-unteer manager), Carla Piantoni (research collabora-tor), Mary Parrish (scientific illustrator), Molly Ryan (scientific illustrator), and myself. Carla and Mary were partners during scuba dives. Our main objec-tive was to resample sponges from cryptic habitats, such as fore-reef framework caves, lower surfaces of platy coral rubble, and the inside of discarded conch shells, to obtain duplicates of rare sponge species col-lected during previous trips and voucher specimens matched with underwater photographs and laboratory photo-macrographs. Most species found are different from those flourishing in illuminated habitats and many are part of a fauna seen outside caves only in much deeper water than the 0.5 m to 25 m zone covered by our dives. A paper on sponge diversity, new and poorly known taxa, and distributional data is in progress and covers more than 100 species.

We also resampled what we call “mini-reefs,” small reef clusters found among seagrass in shallow water (1-3 m) in the south entrance of the nearby Twin Cays main channel. Molly had started a drawing of this com-munity, mainly composed of small corals (e.g. Porites), sponges (Lissodendoryx, Clathria, Tedania, Hyrtios),and algae (mainly Halimeda) and a wealth of inverte-brate associates, including eusocial Synalpheus (found again after discoverer Emmett Duffy its disappearance from host sponges, particularly, at this location, L. columbiensis). We noted that community composition has stayed quite stable over at least the past 15 years.

Finally, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of discover-

ing Carrie Bow Cay and founding our CCRE (original-ly, IMSWE—Investigations of Marine Shallow-Water Ecosystems) field station there. In February 1972, our postdoctoral Fellow Arnfried Antonius (University of Vienna, Austria, and Instituto Oceanographico, Cu-maná, Venezuela) and I visited Glover’s Reef, one of three atolls outside the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef off Belize. Using a charter boat from Belize City, we in-

tended to return dive and boat equipment, used by us and other Smithsonian scientists during surveys of the atoll, to a storage facility at a hotel in Dangriga, on the mainland. The boat crew, unfamiliar with the waters in southern Belize, missed the intended passage through the barrier reef near Tobacco Cay, so we decided to get oriented by going ashore at a tiny islet with a concrete dock. There were shuttered buildings but no people, but a sign said “Welcome to Carrie Bow Cay.” When we arrived in Dangriga, we inquired about ownership of the island and learned that it was the father of our host at Pelican Beach Motel, Henry T. A. Bowman, a sec-ond generation Scottish citrus planter; the island was his vacation retreat. “Sir Henry,” as we soon called him, agreed to let us lease the southern half of Carrie Bow Cay for our research. I few months hence, we estab-lished the Carrie Bow Marine Field Station. Now, 40 years and two building renovations later, we still have a flourishing research program at this unique location and we celebrated with three generations of Sir Henry’s descendents, over dinner at Pelican Beach, our long-lasting association and friendship.

Interior of framework cave, covered by crusts of sponges andcoralline algae; the fairy basslet is a typical cave dweller.

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Mike Carpenter driving Mary Parrish (left) and Carla Piantoni to Curlew Cay cave site.

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CCRE Contributions FY2012Arnold, S. N. and R.S. Steneck. 2011. Settling into an increasingly hostile world: the rapidly closing ‘recruitment window’ for corals. PloS One6(12):e28681. doi:10.1371/joural.pone.0028681.

Aronson, R.B., W.F. Precht, I.G. Macintyre, and L.T. Toth. 2012. Catastrophe and the lifespan of coral reefs. Ecology 93(2): 303-313.

Baldwin, C. C. and L. W. Weigt. 2012. A new species of Soapfish (Teleostei: Serranidae: Rypticus), with redescription of R. subbifrenatus and comments on the use of DNA barcoding in systematic studies. Copeia: 2012(1): 23-36.

Baldwin, C.C., B.J. Brito, D.G. Smith, L.A. Weight, and E. Escobar-Briones. 2011. Identification of early life-history stages of Caribbean Apogon (Perciformes: Apogonidae) through DNA Barcoding. Zootaxa 3133: 1-36.

Bucher, K. E., J.N. Norris, and J.R. Sears. 2012. Gloiotrichus vermiculatus sp. nov. (Liagoraceae, Rhodophyta) a new spe-cies from the Caribbean Sea. Caribbean Journal of Science 47(1): 36-48.

Cheeseman, J. 2012. How red mangrove seedlings stand up. Plant and Soil 355: 395-406.

DeGrave, S. and D.L. Felder. 2012. The genus Processa in the vacinity of Carrie Bow Cay (Belize) with description of a new species (Crustacea: Decapoda: Processidae). Zootaxa 3436: 41-50.

Dirks, U., H.R. Gruber-Vodicka, B. Egger, and J.A. Ott. 2012. Proliferation pattern during rostrum regeneration of the symbiotic flatworm Paracatenula galateia – a pulse-chase-pulse analysis. Cell and Tissue Research 349(2): 517-525.

Dirks, U., H.R. Guber-Vodicka, N. Leisch, S. Bulgheresi, B. Egger, P. Ladurner, and J.A. Ott. 2012. Bacterial Symbiosis Maintenance in the Asexually Reproducing and Regenerating Flatworm Paracatenula galateia. PLoS ONE 7(4): e34709. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0034709.

Dirks, U., H.R. Guber-Vodicka, N. Leisch, W. Sterrer, & J.A. Ott. 2011. A new species of symbiotic flatworms, Para-catenula galateia n. sp. (Platyhelminthes: Catenulida: Retronectidae) from Belize (Central America). Marine Biology Research 7(8): 769-777.

Fogarty, N.D. 2012. Caribbean acroporid coral hybrids are viable across life history stages. Marine Ecology Progress Series 446: 145-159.

Fogarty, N.D., S.V. Vollmer, and D.R. Levitan. 2012. Weak prezygotic isolating mechanisms in threatened Caribbean Acropora corals. PLoS ONE 7(2): e30486. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0030486.

Hultgren, K. and J.E. Duffy. 2012. Phylogenetic community ecology and the role of social dominance in sponge-dwelling shrimp. Ecology Letters 15: 704–713.

Lemaitre, R. and D. L. Felder. 2012. A new species of the hermit crab genus Areopaguristes Rahayu & McLaughlin, 2010 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura: Diogenidae) discovered in the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef of Belize, Caribbean Sea. Zootaxa 3480: 67-79.

Morrow, K.M., R. Ritson-Williams, C. Ross, M.R. Liles, and V.J. Paul. 2012. Macroalgal extracts induce bacterial assem-blage shifts and sublethal tissue stress in Caribbean corals. PLoS ONE 7(9): e44859. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0044859.

Pedersen, T. M., C. L. Gallegos, and S. L. Nielsen. 2012. Influence of near bottom re-suspended sediment on benthic light availability. Estuarine and Coastal Shelf Science 106: 93-101.

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Romero, I.C., M. Jacobson, J. A. Fuhrman, M. Fogel and D. G. Capone. 2012. Long-term nitrogen and phosphorus fer-tilization effects on N2 fixation rates and nifH gene community patterns in mangrove sediments. Marine Ecology 33(1): 117–127.

Rützler, K. 2012. The Role of Sponges in the Mesoamerican Barrier-Reef Ecosystem, Belize. Pages 211-271 in M. A. Becerro, ed. Advances in Sponge Science: Phylogeny, Systematics, Ecology. Advances in Marine Biology 61. Academic, Oxford.

Sharp K.H., D. Distel, and V. J. Paul. 2012. Diversity and Dynamics of Bacterial Communities in Early life Stages of the Caribbean coral Porites astreoides. The IMSE Journal 6: 790-801.

Vaslet, A., D.L. Phillips, C. France, I.C. Feller, and C.C. Baldwin. 2012. The relative importance of mangroves and seagrass beds as feeding areas for resident and transient fishes among different mangrove habitats in Florida and Belize: evidence from dietary and stable-isotope analyses. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 434–435: 81-93.

Wulff, J. 2012. Ecological interactions and the distribution, abundance, and diversity of sponges. Pages 273-344 in M. A. Becerro, ed. Advances in Sponge Science: Phylogeny, Systematics, Ecology. Advances in Marine Biology 61.Academic, Oxford.

2012 Participants* served as station manager

Alanko, Jerry & Sandy, Tilghman, MD* Arnold, Susie, Island Institute, Rockland, MEAronson, Richard, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL Baker, David, SI Marine Science Network & Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of WashingtonBenson, Sam, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 647 Contees Wharf Rd., Edgewater, MD Bornbusch, Sally, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VABrightwater, Franklin, USABulgheresi, Silvia, University of Vienna, AustriaBurns Perez, Virginia, Wildlife Conservation Society, Belize, C.A.Burrows, Damien, James Cook Univeristy, AustraliaBuston, Peter, Boston University, Boston, MACampbell, Allan, Vero Beach, FL*Carpenter, Michael, Ellijay, GA*Coleman, Robin, Wildlife Conservation Society, Belize, C.A.D’Aloia, Cassidy, Boston University, Boston, MADavidson, Timothy, Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst., PanamaDimond, James, Western Washington University, Shannon Point Marine Center, Anacortes, WADramer, Greg and Joann, Kalispell, MT*Ducket, Lisa, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 647 Contees Wharf Rd., Edgewater, MD Duenas, Juisa, University of the Andes, ColumbiaDuffy, Emmett, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VAEasson, Cole, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MSEngene, Niclas, Smithsonian Marine Station, Fort Pierce, FL Feller, Ilka, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MDFogarty, Nicole, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL/Smithsonian Marine Station, Fort Pierce, FLFogel, Marilyn, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of WashingtonFoltz, Zach, Smithsonian Marine Station, Fort Pierce, FL Forde, Alex, University of Maryland, College Park, MDFranklin, Amanda, Tufts University, Medford, MA

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Freeman, Chris, University of Alabama, Birmingham, Birmingham, ALGallegos, Charles, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MDGawne, Peter, New England Aquarium, Boston, MA Gochfeld, Deborah, University of Missippi, Oxford, MSGonzalez, Juan, University of Texas, Austin, TXGouge, Daniel, Williston, FL*Hansen, Carl & Ginger, Springfield, VAHenley, Michael, Smithsonian Institution National Zoological Park, Washington, D.C.Holland, Chris, Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research,National Ocean Service, NOAA, Beaufort, NC Hootman, Jonathon, Whitesburg, KY*James, Edwin & Bonnie, Tilgman, MD* Jones, Scott, Smithsonian Marine Station, Fort Pierce, FL Kaiser, Kathy, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FLMacDonald, Kenneth, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VAKenworthy, Jud, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD Keuskamp, Joost, Utrecht University, Utrecht, NetherlandsDavid, Kevin, Dangriga, Belize, C.A.Koltes, Karen, Office of Insular Affairs, Dept. of Interior, Washington, D.C.LaPlante, Monika, Smithsonian Marine Station, Fort Pierce, FLLeisch, Niko, University of Vienna, AustriaMacintyre, Ian, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.Majoris, John, Boston University, Boston, MAMcKeon, Seabird, Smithsonian Marine Station, Fort Pierce, FLMelkun, Jessica, Florida State University, Talahassee, FLMiranda, Ashbert, Wildlife Conservation Society, Belize, C.A.Moore, Joel & Linda, Shingle Springs, CA*Nathan, Mayda, University of Maryland, College Park, MDNorales, Charles, Wildlife Conservation Society, Belize, C.A.Ochoa, Edgardo, Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst., PanamaOlson, Julie, University of AlabamaOpishinksi, Thomas, Interactive Oceanographics, East Greenwich, RI Ott, Joerg, University of Vienna, AustriaParrish, Mary, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.Parsons, Keith & Shirley, Atlanta, GA* Paul, Valerie, Smithsonian Marine Station, Fort Pierce, FL Pende, Nika, University of Vienna, AustriaPeresta, Gary, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 647 Contees Wharf Rd., Edgewater, MD*Piantoni, Carla, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.Reijngoud, Annemieke, Utrecht University, Utrecht, NetherlandsRickborn, Alissa, Boston University, Boston, MARuetzler, Klaus Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.Rihl, Stephanie, California Department of Fish and Game, Ramona, CARitson-Williams, Raphael, Smithsonian Marine Station, Fort Pierce, FL/University of HawaiiRoss, Clifford, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FLRotjan, Randi, New England Aquarium, Boston, MA Rubenstein, Dustin, Columbia University, New York, NYRyan, Molly, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.Sanchez Munoz, Juan, University of the Andes, ColumbiaScheff, George, 4092 Norris Rd., Bellville, OH*Schloeder, Carmen, Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst., PanamaSellers, Andrew, Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst., PanamaSherwood, Craig, Deale, MD*Smith, Derek, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of WashingtonSneed, Jennifer, Smithsonian Marine Station, Fort Pierce, FL

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Spathias, Hanae, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CATaylor, Jim & Tanya, Oxford, MS*Teplitski, Max, University of Florida, Gainesville, FLTester, Patricia Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research,National Ocean Service, NOAA, Beaufort, NCTin Chi, Soloman Chak, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VATorchin, Mark, Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst., PanamaToscano, Marguerite, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.Toth, Lauren, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FLTschirky, John, Washington, D.C.Weber, Michelle, University of California, BerkeleyWesby, Danny, Wildlife Conservation Society, Belize, C.A.Wood, Abby, Smithsonian Institution National Zoological Park, Washington, D.C.Wulff, Colin, Talahassee, FLWulff, Janie, Florida State University, Tallahasee, FL

Photograph & Art Credits: Front Cover: Abby Wood, p.6 R. Coleman, p.7 A. Wood, p.8 Z. Foltz, p.9 K. Koltes, p.11 Z. Foltz, p.12 R, Aronson, p.13 A. Wood, p. 14 R. Ritson-Williams, p. 15 R. Ritson-Williams, p. 16 P. Buston, p.17 P. Buston, p. 18 A. Forde, p. 19 D. Gochfeld, p. 20 D. Gochfeld, p. 21. J. Wulff, p. 22 A. Arthur, E. Duffy, p.23 S. Bulgheresi, p.24 S. Bulgheresi, p. 25 J. Ott, p. 26 M. Faust, p. 28 R. Ritson-Williams, p. 29 D. Baker, p. 30 I. Feller, p. 31 J. Keuskamp, p. 32 A. Sellers, p. 33 A. Wood, p.35 M. Toscano, p.36 A. Wood, p. 37 A. Wood, p.38 A. Wood, p.39 C. Piantoni, p.40 C. Pianto-ni, Back Cover: top: M.S. Jones, A. Wood, A. Wood; center: A. Wood; bottom: R. Ritson-Williams, Z. Foltz, A. Wood

We are extremely grateful to Abby Wood of Abois Photography and an associate of the Smithsonian’s National Zo-ological Park for the use of her excellent photos. To see more of her work, visit http://abois.zenfolio.com/carriebow.

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Smithsonian Marine StationCaribbean Coral Reef Ecosystems ProgramFort Pierce, FL · Carrie Bow Cay, Belize

www.ccre.si.eduwww.sms.si.edu

CCRE Staff:Valerie Paul, DirectorZach Foltz, Station ManagerScott Jones, Program Coordinator

ccre 2012 annual report

Documents