Living Resources
Living Resources
Biodiversity of fish species remained constant. The average abundance of lionfish per survey site drastically increased as the invasive species spread in 2009. The number and density of coral colonies remained the same. There was an increase followed by a decrease starting in 2017 in the number of colonies of barrel sponges. There was a decrease in the abundance of yellowtail snapper, a decrease followed by a recovery of hogfish, a decrease in abundance of red grouper, and a decrease but large variability in the abundance of black grouper.
Average Coral Species Richness Within and Outside protected zones in FKNMS
Mean effective number of fish species
Average abundance of lionfish per RVC site
Simpson's Biodiversity Index of Fish Species
Colony count of Xesto sponges in Florida Keys monitoring sites
Stony Coral Density
Coral Bleaching
The below interactive visualization tools represent changes due to coral bleaching events in the Florida Keys. The site, Cheeca Rocks, in the Middle Keys, is monitored regularly and changes are documented via high resolution photo mosaics. Click the gray circle to show the pre-bleaching event reef in 2014, the reef during the bleaching event in 2015, and post event recovery in 2016.
Coral Disease
The below interactive visualization tools represent changes due to the spread of the stony coral tissue loss disease in the Florida Keys. The site, Cheeca Rocks, in the Middle Keys, is monitored regularly and changes are documented via high resolution photo mosaics. Click the gray circle to show the pre-disease spread reef in March 2018, the reef during the disease spread in June 2018, and post disease event in July 2019.