Nuestro objetivo es desarrollar diversas publicaciones científicas que destaquen nuestro compromiso con la conservación de nuestros recursos marinos.
La mayoría de las publicaciones están disponibles gratuitamente en nuestro sitio web.
2018
Pérez-Pagán, Birla Sofía; Mercado-Molina, Alex E.
Evaluation of the effectiveness of 3D-printed corals to attract coral reef fish at Tamarindo Reef, Culebra, Puerto Rico. Journal Article
In: Conservation Evidence, vol. 15, pp. 43-47, 2018, ISSN: 1758-2067.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: 3D-printed corals, Acropora cervicornis, Caribbean, Caribbean Coral Reefs, Caribbean Sea, Coastal Resilience, Conservation Biology, Coral, Coral Reef Ecology, Coral Reef Ecosystems, coral reefs
@article{Pérez-Pagán2018,
title = {Evaluation of the effectiveness of 3D-printed corals to attract coral reef fish at Tamarindo Reef, Culebra, Puerto Rico.},
author = {Pérez-Pagán, Birla Sofía and Mercado-Molina, Alex E.},
url = {https://www.conservationevidence.com/individual-study/6858
},
issn = {1758-2067},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-06-11},
urldate = {2018-06-11},
journal = {Conservation Evidence},
volume = {15},
pages = {43-47},
abstract = {The development of artificial corals using 3D-printing technology has been proposed as an alternative to aid the recovery of fish populations in degraded reefs. However, no study has empirically evaluated the potential of such artificial corals to attract fish to reef patches. We conducted an experiment to determine whether the number of fish associated with natural and 3D-printed corals differs significantly. The 3D-printed artificial corals mimicked the morphology of staghorn coral Acropora cervicornis, whose branches serve as habitat for many fish species. There is evidence indicating that fish abundance increases with habitat complexity, but no specific evidence relating to A. cervicornis. Therefore, we also investigated whether the structural complexity of both natural and artificial corals affected their effectiveness to attract fish. We found that the number of fish associated with artificial and natural corals was not significantly different. However, irrespective of coral type, fish were more abundant in corals with the highest levels of complexity. Our findings suggest that 3D-printed corals can serve as a complementary tool to improve the ecosystem function of degraded coral reefs.},
keywords = {3D-printed corals, Acropora cervicornis, Caribbean, Caribbean Coral Reefs, Caribbean Sea, Coastal Resilience, Conservation Biology, Coral, Coral Reef Ecology, Coral Reef Ecosystems, coral reefs},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
2017
Hernández-Delgado, Edwin A.; Rosado-Matías, Bernard J.
In: Annals of Marine Biology and Research, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 1-17, 2017.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Beach erosion, Beach renourishment, Climate change, Coastal Erosion, Coastal Resilience, Conservation Biology, Coral, Coral Reef Ecology, Coral Reef Ecosystems, coral reefs, Environmental Sustainability, Wave Energy
@article{Hernández-Delgado2017b,
title = {Long-Lasting Impacts of Beach Renourishment on nearshore Urban Coral Reefs: a Glimpse of Future Impacts of Shoreline Erosion, Climate Change and Sea Level Rise},
author = {Hernández-Delgado, Edwin A. and Rosado-Matías, Bernard J.},
url = {https://sampr.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Long_Lasting_Impacts_of_Beach_Renourishm.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318316763_Long-Lasting_Impacts_of_Beach_Renourishment_on_Near_shore_Urban_Coral_Reefs_a_Glimpse_of_Future_Impacts_of_Shoreline_Erosion_Climate_Change_and_Sea_Level_Rise
},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-05-05},
urldate = {2017-05-05},
journal = {Annals of Marine Biology and Research},
volume = {4},
number = {1},
pages = {1-17},
abstract = {Urban shoreline erosion mitigation through beach renourishment has often been dismissed as environmentally insignificant. Given predicted impacts of sea level rise (SLR) and increased shoreline erosion, such activities might become a common practice in the future. But its long-term impacts on adjacent coral reefs have remained poorly documented. Benthic community trajectories were addressed during a period of twelve years across a spatial gradient of sediment burial impacts by beach renourishment on a high-energy urban coral reef at La Marginal Beach, Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Impacts associated to beach renourishment, followed by long-term, slowly-evolving impacts associated to sediment bedload, increased turbidity, increased Arecibo River streamflow, urban polluted runoff discharges, high particulate organic carbon (POC) concentration, and coral mortality following massive coral bleaching in 2005 were
addressed through long-term monitoring. There was an initial catastrophic loss in coral species richness, diversity index and percent living coral cover, and a rapid regime shift favoring dominance by macroalgae and other non-reef building taxa. Long-term chronic impacts arrested high impact sites to an early successional stage, and drove moderate and low impact sites to a similar stage of very low species diversity, colony abundance and reef growth. Such chronic changes in community trajectories represent a glimpse into potential future impacts of shoreline erosion, sediment bedload, increasing turbidity and coastal water quality decline associated to SLR. The combination of chronic coral reef decline resulting from beach renourishment, coastal pollution, turbidity, and sediment bedload may have critical long-term ecological implications for urban coral reef resilience, functions and benefits.},
keywords = {Beach erosion, Beach renourishment, Climate change, Coastal Erosion, Coastal Resilience, Conservation Biology, Coral, Coral Reef Ecology, Coral Reef Ecosystems, coral reefs, Environmental Sustainability, Wave Energy},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
addressed through long-term monitoring. There was an initial catastrophic loss in coral species richness, diversity index and percent living coral cover, and a rapid regime shift favoring dominance by macroalgae and other non-reef building taxa. Long-term chronic impacts arrested high impact sites to an early successional stage, and drove moderate and low impact sites to a similar stage of very low species diversity, colony abundance and reef growth. Such chronic changes in community trajectories represent a glimpse into potential future impacts of shoreline erosion, sediment bedload, increasing turbidity and coastal water quality decline associated to SLR. The combination of chronic coral reef decline resulting from beach renourishment, coastal pollution, turbidity, and sediment bedload may have critical long-term ecological implications for urban coral reef resilience, functions and benefits.

