Recovery and resilience of coral assemblages on managed and unmanaged reefs in Belize: A long-term study

There is uncertainty surrounding the resilience of coral reef ecosystems to disturbances. There is a great need for determining the ability of reefs to absorb shocks, resist phase shifts and regenerate after disturbances. Functional groups, especially herbivores, are thought to play important roles in preconditioning reefs to facilitate recovery of corals. No-take zones (NTZs) can allow critical functional groups to persist, thereby contributing to local ecosystem resilience. I investigated the role of critical functional groups (i.e. reef framework builders and grazers) and protection status (NTZs vs. fished reefs) in relation to reef recovery and resilience from two intensely damaging perturbations on Belize's reefs in 1998: mass coral bleaching and Hurricane Mitch. Contrary to expectation, a significant difference in mean coral cover was not detected between fished and unfished reefs; however, the density of juvenile corals was significantly greater on fished reefs. Unfished reefs exhibited a significantly higher macroalgal cover than fished reefs. Based on a one-time sample of herbivore density (i.e. fish and Diadema), a significant difference between unfished and fished reefs was not detected. This study demonstrates that no recovery has occurred in terms of coral assemblages since the impacts of 1998 on both fished and unfished reefs.