In the last decades diseases have changed coral communities’ structure and function in reefs worldwide. Studies conducted to evaluate the effect of diseases on corals frequently use modified adaptations of sampling designs that were developed to study ecological aspects of coral reefs. Here we evaluate how efficient these sampling protocols are by generating virtual data for a coral population parameterized with mean coral density and disease prevalence estimates from the Caribbean scleractinian Orbicella faveolata at the Mexican Caribbean. Six scenarios were tested consisting of three patterns of coral colony distribution (random, randomly clustered and randomly over-dispersed) and two disease transmission modes (random and contagious). The virtual populations were sampled with the commonly used method of belt-transects with variable sample-unit sizes (10 × 1, 10 × 2, 25 × 2, 50 × 2 m). Results showed that the probability of obtaining a mean coral disease prevalence estimate of ±5% of the true prevalence value was low (range: 11–48%) and that two-sample comparisons achieved rather low power, unless very large effect sizes existed. Such results imply low statistical confidence to assess differences or changes in coral disease prevalence. The main problem identified was insufficient sample size because local mean colony size, density and spatial distribution of targeted coral species was not taken into consideration to properly adjust the sampling protocols.

Mangrove forests have declined worldwide and understanding the key drivers of regeneration at different perturbation levels can help manage and preserve these critical ecosystems. For example, the Ramsar site # 1602, located at the Tampamachoco lagoon, Veracruz, México, consists of a dense forest of medium-sized trees composed of three mangrove species. Due to several human activities, including the construction of a power plant around the 1990s, an area of approximately 2.3 km² has suffered differential levels of perturbation: complete mortality, partial tree loss (divided into two sections: main and isolated patch), and apparently undisturbed sites. The number and size of trees, from seedlings to adults, were measured using transects and quadrats. With a matrix of the abundance of trees by size categories and species, an ordination (nMDS) showed three distinct groups corresponding to the degree of perturbation. Projection matrices based on the size structure of Avicennia germinans showed transition probabilities that varied according to perturbation levels. Lambda showed growing populations except on the zone that showed partial tree loss; a relatively high abundance of seedlings is not enough to ensure stable mangrove dynamics or start regeneration; and the survival of young trees and adult trees showed high sensitivity.

The dataset is divided in two main groups. The first group, referred to as “Meteorological data”, consists of air temperature, sea level pressure and U and V components of wind direction and intensity: The second group, referred to as “Oceanographic data”, includes biovolume, sea level and water temperature measurements. The meteorological data is derived from model data obtained from the NAAR-NCEP reanalysis for North America, calculated over the area of the Veracruz reef system, Mexico. On the other hand, the oceanographic data was collected in situ using four ADCPs (Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers) anchored at a depth of 20 m at four different reefs within the Veracruz reef system. Both datasets cover a period of 10 days in November 2008, during which successive low-and high-pressure systems occurred over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. These datasets can be used to evaluate the effect of the pressure changes on marine circulation, residual current and oceanographic variables.

Introduction: Despite warmer conditions during the Last Interglacial, coral colonies of Orbicella were abundant and reached large sizes on many Caribbean reefs, including the extinct O. nancyi.Methods: To explore variation in growth rates, we examined the yearly mean linear extension of growth bands in two fossil Orbicella species and compared them with two modern species of the same genus from shallow waters of the wider Caribbean.We measured the linear extension of corals exposed in a fossil reef and their modern counterparts, from both in situ colonies and coral slab X-rays.Results: Few coral colonies showed autocorrelation or a linear trend on their linear-growth time series. A Bayesian ANOVA showed lower linear-extension rates of fossils compared to modern colonies and similar or lower than other fossil corals from the Pleistocene. Growth rates and growth form contribute significantly to the amount of tissue and size of coral colonies and can be a decisive trait for inter and intra specific competition.Discussion: It is unlikely that temperature or interspecific competition explain modern coral extension rates and the low rates of the fossils data, which seem to be controlled instead by past habitat conditions.

High- and low-pressure systems traveling as Rossby waves from the western Pacific to the eastern Gulf of Mexico induce fluctuations in oceanographic parameters (currents, temperature, sea level, an...