Times of the Islands Summer 2016

green pages newsletter of the department of environment & maritime affairs
The extensive reef system surrounding the Turks &
Caicos not only protects adjacent shorelines from wave
action and prevents erosion and property damage, but
supports the economy directly and indirectly through
the local fishing industry (spiny lobster and the queen
conch) and tourism. Recognizing the critical importance
of coastal marine systems, the TCI has established an
extensive network of 34 protected areas, incorporating
critical marine habitats such as reefs, mangroves, seagrass
beds and sand banks, and the faunal communities
they support.
Despite the ecological complexity and high biodiversity
of coral reefs, they are particularly sensitive to
impacts from a series of phenomena (climate change,
storms, current pattern changes) and anthropogenic
activities. In the case of Caribbean reefs, the most significant
damage is attributed to coral diseases, hurricanes,
mass mortality of the herbivorous long-spine sea urchin
(Diadema antillarum), localized human impacts, and
climate change. These drivers of change have caused
dramatic phase shifts to systems dominated by macroalgae
and other nuisance species, fields of unstable coral
rubble, loss of three-dimensional structure, and increases
in abundance of shorter-lived brooding corals such as
Agaricia and Porites.
In addition, overfishing of exploitable reef species,
sedimentation, water pollution from on-shore development
and population growth, and global climate change
combine with natural phenomena to create a situation
where near shore marine systems are under increasing
stress throughout the world. As a result, coral reefs are
at risk and it is crucial to establish comprehensive coastal
management plans to curtail and prevent the destruction
of these critical habitats, which are likely irreplaceable.
The Turks & Caicos Islands hold some of the most
pristine coral reefs and enduring fisheries in all of
Caribbean. On South Caicos, a unique opportunity to
study and monitor long-term environmental changes
was seized upon by The School for Field Studies’ Center
for Marine Resource Studies (SFS CMRS). The School for
Field Studies (SFS) is a US-based academic institution that
provides multidisciplinary, field-based environmental
study abroad opportunities to undergraduate university
students. Each SFS program highlights a different region
of the world, with its own distinct cultural and ecological
characteristics and unique environmental challenges.
From top: School for Field Studies students regularly monitor the
reefs around South Caicos to study long-term environmental changes.
Katie Rose Jacobus (University of San Diego) photographs the reef
for CPCe analysis.
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