Annotated Bibliography Final 11.16.05. This report is an annotated bibliography of scientific publi-cations, university publications, technical reports, conference proceedings, and gray literature related to studies and observations of the condition of the coral reefs and coralline communities around Puerto Rico. When available, the annotated bibliography also provides a location of where the refer-ence can be obtained. ESC Folder: Reading Room (contact: LisaMarie Carrubba, lisama-rine.carrubba@noaa.gov)
Bauer LJ and MS Kendall (Eds.). 2010. An Ecological Characterization of the Marine Resources of Vieques, Puerto Rico Part II: Field Studies of Habitats, Nutrients, Contaminants, Fish, and Benthic Communities. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 110. Silver Spring, MD. 174 pp. This report summarizes recent field studies which were conducted to complete an island-wide characteri-zation, and to establish baseline values for the distribution of habitats, nutrients, contaminants, fish, and benthic communities. An important objective underlying this suite of studies was to quantify any differences in the marine areas adjacent to the former and current land-use zoning around Vieques. ESC Folder: Reading Room (contact: Laurie Bauer, laurie.bauer@noaa.gov)
Coral Reef Biological Criteria: Using the Clean Water Act to Protect a National Treasure. EPA/600/R-10/054 | July 2010. The purpose of this document is to support coral reef managers in States, Territories, and Commonwealths to establish water quality criteria and standards under the Clean Water Act (CWA) to protect aquatic life from the effects of pollution. The report provides in-formation on the different planning, assessment, and management steps that are necessary for devel-opment of coral reef biocriteria. ESC Folder: Reading Room – Coral Biocriteria Report (contact: Pat Bradley, Bradley.patricia@epa.gov)
Jeffrey CFG, Mueller PW, Kendall MS, Buja K, Edwards K, Hile SD and Carrubba L. 2010. Biogeographic Characterization of Essential Fish Habitats Affected by Human Activities in the Coastal Zone of Puerto Rico – Final Project Report. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 115. This report summarizes the historical information on benthic habitats and the status of marine resources in protected and non-protected marine areas around the islands of Puerto Rico. In addition, information on benthic habitat types, Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) requirements, and fishing and non-fishing impacts to marine resources were compiled for two priority areas: La Parguera and Vieques. The information was compiled into a Geographic Information System (GIS) that can sup-port conservation efforts. ESC Folder: Reading Room (contact: Chris Jeffrey, chris.jeffrey@noaa.gov)
Larsen MC &Webb MT. 2009. Potential Effects of Runoff, Fluvial Sediment, and Nutrient Dis-charges on the Coral Reefs of Puerto Rico. Journal of Coastal Research 25(1):189-208. Coral reefs, have been degraded by human activity in much of the earth’s tropical oceans. To contribute to im-proved understanding of this problem, the potential relation between river sediment and nutrient dis-charges and degradation of coral reefs surrounding Puerto Rico was studied using stream flow, sus-pended-sediment, and water-quality data. ESC Folder: Reading Room, Land-Based Sources of Pollution (contact: Carlos Ramos, cramos@irf.org )
Pittman SJ, Hile SD, Jeffrey CFG, Clark R, Woody K, Herlach BD, Caldow C, Monaco ME, Appeldoorn R. 2010. Coral reef ecosystems of Reserva Natural La Parguera (Puerto Rico): Spatial and temporal patterns in fish and benthic communities (2001-2007). NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 107. Silver Spring, MD. 202 pp. This report summarizes the first seven years of fish survey data (2001-2007) and associated characterization of the benthos in the La Parguera region. The objectives were to quantify changes in fish species and assemblage diversity, abundance, biomass and size structure; to provide spatially explicit information on the distribution of key species or groups of species; and to compare community structure across the seascape including fringing mangroves, inner, middle, and outer reef areas, and open ocean shelf bank areas. ESC Folder: Reading Room (contact: Richard Appeldoorn, Richard.appeldoorn@upr.edu)
Ramos-Scharron. 2010. Sediment production from unpaved roads in a sub-tropical dry setting — Southwestern Puerto Rico. Catena 82:146–158. The threat imposed by increased sediment loading rates ranks among the most important stressors affecting coral reef ecosystems worldwide. The objectives of this study were to: (1) measure sediment production rates from unpaved roads; (2) evaluate the effect of precipitation, rainfall erosivity, slope, plot length, and vegetation cover on sediment production rates; and (3) compare measured sediment production rates to published surface erosion data from roaded and natural sites in the Eastern Caribbean. Sediment production from nine abandoned road segments with varying slopes and plot lengths were measured with sediment traps in southwestern Puerto Rico from August 2003 to September 2005. ESC Folder: Reading Room, Land-Based Sources of Pollution (contact: Carlos Ramos, cramos@irf.org )
Ramos-Scharron CE & MacDonald LH. 2007. Development and application of a GIS-based sediment budget model. Journal of Environmental Management 84:157–172. Resource managers and decision makers need spatially explicit tools to help them predict the changes in sediment production and delivery due to unpaved roads and other types of land disturbance. The objectives of this study were to: (1) develop a GIS-based sediment budget model; (2) use the model to evaluate the effects of unpaved roads on sediment delivery rates in three watersheds on St. John in the US Virgin Islands; and (3) compare the predicted sediment yields to pre-existing data. ESC Folder: Reading Room, Land-Based Sources of Pollution (contact: Carlos Ramos, cramos@irf.org )
Ramos-Scharron CE & MacDonald LH. 2005. Measurement and prediction of sediment production from unpaved roads, St John, US Virgin Islands. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 30:1283–1304. This article presents the results of a study of unpaved roads on St. John in USVI from July 1998 to November 2001. The main objectives of this study were to: (1) measure sediment production rates at the road segment scale; (2) evaluate the importance of precipitation, slope, contributing area, traffic, and grading on road sediment production; (3) develop an empirical road erosion predictive model; and (4) compare our measured erosion rates to other published data. ESC Folder: Reading Room, Land-Based Sources of Pollution (contact: Carlos Ramos, cramos@irf.org )
Ramos-Scharron CE & MacDonald LH. 2007. Measurement and prediction of natural and anthropogenic sediment sources, St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Catena 71:250–266. The main objective of this study was to quantify sediment production and delivery rates in a dry tropical environment on the island of St. John in the eastern Caribbean. One to three years of measurements were used to determine values and empirical functions for estimating sediment production from streambanks, treethrow, undisturbed hillslopes, zero-order subcatchments, unpaved road surfaces, and road cutslopes. Sediment production also was measured from both undisturbed and roaded first-order subcatchments. ESC Folder: Reading Room, Land-Based Sources of Pollution (contact: Carlos Ramos, cramos@irf.org)