Abstract Summary
The Miami-Dade portion of the Florida Reef Tract consists mostly of non-accretionary hard bottom coral communities organized into patchy platform and shelf edge reefs. Live hard coral cover is very low in the wake of coral disease, thermal shocks and hurricanes. However, the reefs are high value due to dense nearby user populations, ready accessibility, and presence of a national park. The situation is suitable for coral reef restoration, with good potential for enhancing biodiversity maintenance and the provisioning of food, recreation and tourism opportunities. This portion of the reef estate is proximal to major impactors including human population expansion, rapid urbanization, and sacrifice of habitat destruction that have together severely compromised ecological landscape function. We have begun to examine the key factors bearing on the risk-benefit for reef restoration in the Biscayne marine ecosystem, using a combination of remote sensing, GIS, long-term habitat monitoring, and dynamic modeling of ecosystem service flows and tradeoffs. Early results suggest that if coral reefs and adjacent seagrass and estuarine environments are to be restored, there is need to adopt a landscape view with plans for aggressive and comprehensive stewardship, extensive restoration interventions, and close attention to the amelioration of enabling conditions for coral survival. This is particularly true within Biscayne National Park.
