Introduction
Coral reefs offer humans environmental, economical and social benefits.1-2 Coral reef ecosystems are comparable to that of the tropical rainforests for their biodiversity and species richness.3 Due to coral’s global decline, monitoring of populations, threats to coral reefs and conservation efforts are essential. An artificial reef (AR) is the submersion of a physically stable structure underwater that demonstrates characteristics similar to natural reef systems, such as the capacity to host marine wildlife.4 ARs take various forms; Museo Subacuático de Arte (MUSA) is an underwater museum that has been designed to act as an AR, while combining art and conservation.5 The purpose of MUSA is to reduce the pressure of tourism …show more content…
2014). The IUCN conducted an extensive report about the status of coral reef in the Caribbean, which concluded that the most significant threat to coral reef was the macroalagal growth.8 However macroalgal growth does not lead to the mortality of coral, it only suppresses coral recruitment.17 Complete coral to algal-shift has only been found to affect less than 1% of coral reefs and only 4% of coral reefs in the Caribbean were dominated by algae.18 By looking at ‘pristine’ reefs, those that are less or unaffected by fishing, with intact food webs, also showed high percentage of macroalgal cover, therefore it is possible that the historical baseline is much higher than ecologists once thought.18 However it is possible that there is no such thing as a ‘pristine’ reef, although it might be an area that is less fished, the decrease in populations elsewhere could impact the area and eutrophication from agricultural run off could be responsible for increased algal
Coral reefs offer humans environmental, economical and social benefits.1-2 Coral reef ecosystems are comparable to that of the tropical rainforests for their biodiversity and species richness.3 Due to coral’s global decline, monitoring of populations, threats to coral reefs and conservation efforts are essential. An artificial reef (AR) is the submersion of a physically stable structure underwater that demonstrates characteristics similar to natural reef systems, such as the capacity to host marine wildlife.4 ARs take various forms; Museo Subacuático de Arte (MUSA) is an underwater museum that has been designed to act as an AR, while combining art and conservation.5 The purpose of MUSA is to reduce the pressure of tourism …show more content…
2014). The IUCN conducted an extensive report about the status of coral reef in the Caribbean, which concluded that the most significant threat to coral reef was the macroalagal growth.8 However macroalgal growth does not lead to the mortality of coral, it only suppresses coral recruitment.17 Complete coral to algal-shift has only been found to affect less than 1% of coral reefs and only 4% of coral reefs in the Caribbean were dominated by algae.18 By looking at ‘pristine’ reefs, those that are less or unaffected by fishing, with intact food webs, also showed high percentage of macroalgal cover, therefore it is possible that the historical baseline is much higher than ecologists once thought.18 However it is possible that there is no such thing as a ‘pristine’ reef, although it might be an area that is less fished, the decrease in populations elsewhere could impact the area and eutrophication from agricultural run off could be responsible for increased algal