Local variability but landscape stability in coral reef communities following repeated hurricane impacts

Coral reef community structure has remained remarkably stable over a 10 yr period within a small protected marine area despite repeated hurricane impa cts. Local community dynamics have been highly variable, however. Sites tha t were destroyed by disease in the 1970s are showing little or no recovery, while sites less than a kilometre away that were devastated by Hurricane H ugo in 1989 are recovering well. Strong coral recruitment has occurred in s hallow, exposed areas that showed the greatest hurricane impacts, and these areas are now more species rich than in 1988, although coral cover has not reached pre-hurricane levels. Coral colony survivorship has been high thro ughout most of the study area. Partial mortality rates were elevated for se veral years following Hurricane Hugo, but significant whole coral-head mort ality only occurred during periods with hurricane impacts and only at the m ost exposed sites. Overall, the coral community has proved resilient to clo sely repeated major hurricane impacts. From a single case study we cannot a ttribute this resilience to the relatively low level of human impacts, but grazing fish populations have apparently remained high enough to keep macro algae in check despite the mass mortality of the herbivore Diadema antillar um in the 1980s.