Change detection in coral reef ecosystem: strengthening community resilience and adaptation in Mahahual, Mexico

With the purpose to strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to the tourism service providers and community in Mahahual, a coral reef monitoring project was undertaken to detect possible changes in the reef ecosystem. The... [ view full abstract ]

With the purpose to strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to the tourism service providers and community in Mahahual, a coral reef monitoring project was undertaken to detect possible changes in the reef ecosystem. The monitoring consisted in underwater permanent photo-quadrats on hard corals and video transects for sea bottom and fish community records, during 3 continues years (2014-2017). In the hard coral monitoring results coral cover and diversity index did not show significant difference, although there were losses of hard coral colonies by bleaching and sponge invasion. Nevertheless, this negative effect was compensated by new coral colonies.

On the other hand, a change detection analysis was applied using high resolution sets of satellite images, one from 2005 and other from 2015. Few changes were recorded in hard coral cover, while seagrass and sand bottoms were more dynamic in their spatial distribution.

A group of Mahahual tour guides participated in a workshop at the Marist University campus in Merida in October, 2015. Its aim was to increase the local knowledge of the natural processes of the reef, present the monitoring purpose being performed and identify strengths and weaknesses of the Mahahual as a community. Final results of the monitoring project were presented in a meeting at Mahahual in November, 2017. Additionally, there were discussed community actions that may strengthen their community resilience and adaptation to changes in nature than could threaten their livelihoods. In both events, the attendees manifested being participative in community actions such as public meetings and beach cleaning campaigns. Also, they acknowledged the importance of strengthening their integration/coordination among them as a community, recognizing as necessities being trained in conservation actions of the reef ecosystem and achieving government support for the spatial management of this highly valuable ecosystem.