Widespread local chronic stressors in Caribbean coastal habitats

<div><p>Coastal ecosystems and the livelihoods they support are threatened by stressors acting at global and local scales. Here we used the data produced by the Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity program (CARICOMP), the longest, largest monitoring program in the wider Caribbean, to evidence local-scale (decreases in water quality) and global-scale (increases in temperature) stressors across the basin. Trend analyses showed that visibility decreased at 42% of the stations, indicating that local-scale chronic stressors are widespread. On the other hand, only 18% of the stations showed increases in water temperature that would be expected from global warming, partially reflecting the limits in detecting trends due to inherent natural variability of temperature data. Decreases in visibility were associated with increased human density. However, this link can be decoupled by environmental factors, with conditions that increase the flush of water, dampening the effects of human influence. Besides documenting environmental stressors throughout the basin, our results can be used to inform future monitoring programs, if the desire is to identify stations that provide early warning signals of anthropogenic impacts. All CARICOMP environmental data are now available, providing an invaluable baseline that can be used to strengthen research, conservation, and management of coastal ecosystems in the Caribbean basin.</p></div

Montastraea annularis microsatellite data

Genotype data for 6 microsatellite loci for 871 samples of Montastraea annularis collected from 26 sites across the wider Caribbean are provided. Montastraea samples were collected in the field between 2004 and 2008. Sample ID, region and site name are supplied for each individual. Column headings are detailed in the ReadMe file

Sea temperature throughout the CARICOMP network.

<p>Sea temperature in each site and habitat in the CARICOMP network, all data are presented, including all years (i.e. since 1992) and all stations, with and without long-term (> 3 years) data: (A) coral reefs; (B) seagrass meadows; and (C) mangroves. In boxplots, lines represent means, boxes 25 and 75% quantiles, whiskers 1.5 inter-quartile ranges and dots outliers. Sites are: Costa Rica (CRI), Panama (PAN), western Venezuela (VEN), eastern Venezuela (VEN2), Colombia (COL), Trinidad y Tobago (TAT), Bonaire (BON), northern Colombia (COL2), Curaçao (CUR), Barbados (BAR), Belize (BEL), Puerto Rico (PUR), Saba (SAB), Dominican Republic (DRE), Jamaica (JAM), Mexico (MEX), Cuba (CUB), the Bahamas (BAH), United States (USA), and Bermuda (BER). Sites with an asterisk were included in subsequent analyses.</p

Time series example.

<p>Time series for sea temperature (A) and visibility (B) for the reef at Chengue Bay (Colombia), showing significant increases in temperature and significant decreases in visibility. For temperature, the model fit takes into account both seasonality (sinusoidal line) and a linear trend (straight line).</p

Sea temperature throughout the CARICOMP network.

<p>Sea temperature in each site and habitat in the CARICOMP network, all data are presented, including all years (i.e. since 1992) and all stations, with and without long-term (> 3 years) data: (A) coral reefs; (B) seagrass meadows; and (C) mangroves. In boxplots, lines represent means, boxes 25 and 75% quantiles, whiskers 1.5 inter-quartile ranges and dots outliers. Sites are: Costa Rica (CRI), Panama (PAN), western Venezuela (VEN), eastern Venezuela (VEN2), Colombia (COL), Trinidad y Tobago (TAT), Bonaire (BON), northern Colombia (COL2), Curaçao (CUR), Barbados (BAR), Belize (BEL), Puerto Rico (PUR), Saba (SAB), Dominican Republic (DRE), Jamaica (JAM), Mexico (MEX), Cuba (CUB), the Bahamas (BAH), United States (USA), and Bermuda (BER). Sites with an asterisk were included in subsequent analyses.</p

Visibility throughout the CARICOMP network.

<p>Visibility in each site and habitat in the CARICOMP network, all data are presented, including all years (i.e. since 1992) and all stations, with and without long-term (> 3 years) data: (A) Coral reefs; and (B) Seagrass meadows. In boxplots, lines represent means, boxes 25 and 75% quantiles, whiskers 1.5 inter-quartile ranges and dots outliers. Sites are: Costa Rica (CRI), Panama (PAN), western Venezuela (VEN), eastern Venezuela (VEN2), Colombia (COL), Trinidad y Tobago (TAT), Bonaire (BON), northern Colombia (COL2), Curaçao (CUR), Barbados (BAR), Belize (BEL), Puerto Rico (PUR), Saba (SAB), Dominican Republic (DRE), Jamaica (JAM), Mexico (MEX), Cuba (CUB), the Bahamas (BAH), United States (USA), and Bermuda (BER). Sites with an asterisk were included in subsequent analyses.</p

Explaining trends in visibility.

<p>Predicted probability of decreases and increases in visibility (as per right-hand labels of the top and bottom panels, respectively) against changes in human population (A), wave exposure (B), current speed (C), and trend in rainfall (D).</p

Changes in temperature and visibility throughout the CARICOMP network.

<p>Map of CARICOMP stations showing significant increases, decreases, or non-significant trends for temperature (A) and visibility (B). Labels as in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0188564#pone.0188564.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>, with upper case letters indicating the location and lower case the habitat.</p

Description of sites.

<p>CARICOMP stations with long-term data (at least three years and 30 monthly records).</p