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A doubling of coral cover on Carrie Bow Cay, Belize from 2014-2019

Coral at CBC
gorgonian coral in Panama

A doubling of coral cover on Carrie Bow Cay, Belize from 2014-2019

Research In Action

A new paper by MarineGEO’s former Research Experience for Undergraduates intern Luis de Pablo has been published in the journal Scientific Reports. This study is the first to leverage the long-term photographic data (See image below) collected by MarineGEO at Carrie Bow Cay to show that coral cover has improved from 6 to 13% cover there since the program began in 2014. During the internship, Luis also coded a number of software programs to assist MarineGEO in working with continuing photographic documentation of reef life at Carrie Bow Cay.  Luis pursued the project as a first-year undergraduate at Amherst College in 2019 and worked with MarineGEO throughout his undergraduate career to publish his first first-authored paper.

Example of benthic photoquadrat
Example benthic photoquadrat from Carrie Bow Cay, Belize

L. de Pablo, J.S. Lefcheck, L. Harper, V. Paul, S. Jones, R. Whippo, J. Seeman, D. Kline, J.E. Duffy. (2021) A doubling of coral cover on Carrie Bow Cay, Belize from 2014-2019. Scientific Reports. www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-96799-2  

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Link to Smithsonian Institution homepage(link is external)
The Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO), directed by the Smithsonian’s Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network (TMON), is a network of partners researching biodiversity as the heart of healthy, productive, coastal ecosystems, where marine life and people are concentrated and interact most. MarineGEO marshals the Smithsonian’s leadership in discovery and convening power to advance knowledge useful to decision-makers in supporting innovative management and protection of marine life.