| Discovery Bay, Jamaica is the archetypal example of reef degradation in the Caribbean. Overfishing, two intense hurricanes and the mass mortality of the sea urchin Diadema antillarum in the 1980s effected a transition from coral to macroalgal dominance. Eight cores were extracted from Columbus Park in Discovery Bay and radiocarbon dated to place the modern community structure within a broader historical context. The cores reflected continuous dominance by the staghorn coral Acropora cervicornis for the last 1300 years. Taphonomic analysis indicated frequent, rapid burial of storm-generated fragments and subsequent recovery of A. cervicornis populations. In contrast, the modern reef is characterized by slow burial of dead coral skeletons and no recovery of A. cervicornis. Like previously studied lagoonal reefs of Belize and Panama, Columbus Park is currently exhibiting a community structure unique in at least the past several hundred years, raising the possibility of a human role in its decline. |
