Project Title
Evaluating the Effectiveness of United States Coral Reef Preservation Policies and Programs
Faculty Mentor(s) Name(s)
Dr. Kalina Manoylov
Abstract
Coral reefs play a vital role in oceanic systems and they remain an important factor in worldwide biodiversity, although they have experienced a significant decline over the past several decades. Some estimates report that the average stony coral cover on reefs has decreased from 80% to 10% in the last thirty years, and in the Florida Keys alone coral health has plummeted by 48%. On the federal level, their upkeep is primarily monitored by agencies such as the EPA, NOAA, and the Department of the Interior; some coral-inhabited states like Florida and Hawaii have implemented local programs to assist in a more biogeography-specialized manner, as with Florida’s Coral Reef Conservation Program. This research serves to evaluate the effectiveness of current U.S. policies and programs designed to assist in reef preservation via comparison with Australian reef policies and highlight shortcomings which could be fixed to enhance their efficiency. As a small percentage of global biome, few coral reefs fall under United States jurisdiction. Australian policies regarding the Great Barrier Reef were used as a comparison to American policies. This research is ongoing and has not yet yielded definitive results, but it is hypothesized that Australian policies will display higher rates of effectiveness based on measures of community biodiversity, percent bleaching and overgrowth, and mechanical destruction, and offer policy responses to buffer the weaknesses in current policies. With these solutions working in different ecoregions, I discuss environmental differences that must be accounted for in Florida and Hawaii. Based on the current regulations, nutrient runoff, pesticides, herbicides, motor oil, and other hazardous materials are monitored regularly from the source. I hope that this research can inform the public about the science incorporated into environmental law, and can be used by policymakers as a measurable metric for evaluating coral reefs in the future.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of United States Coral Reef Preservation Policies and Programs
Coral reefs play a vital role in oceanic systems and they remain an important factor in worldwide biodiversity, although they have experienced a significant decline over the past several decades. Some estimates report that the average stony coral cover on reefs has decreased from 80% to 10% in the last thirty years, and in the Florida Keys alone coral health has plummeted by 48%. On the federal level, their upkeep is primarily monitored by agencies such as the EPA, NOAA, and the Department of the Interior; some coral-inhabited states like Florida and Hawaii have implemented local programs to assist in a more biogeography-specialized manner, as with Florida’s Coral Reef Conservation Program. This research serves to evaluate the effectiveness of current U.S. policies and programs designed to assist in reef preservation via comparison with Australian reef policies and highlight shortcomings which could be fixed to enhance their efficiency. As a small percentage of global biome, few coral reefs fall under United States jurisdiction. Australian policies regarding the Great Barrier Reef were used as a comparison to American policies. This research is ongoing and has not yet yielded definitive results, but it is hypothesized that Australian policies will display higher rates of effectiveness based on measures of community biodiversity, percent bleaching and overgrowth, and mechanical destruction, and offer policy responses to buffer the weaknesses in current policies. With these solutions working in different ecoregions, I discuss environmental differences that must be accounted for in Florida and Hawaii. Based on the current regulations, nutrient runoff, pesticides, herbicides, motor oil, and other hazardous materials are monitored regularly from the source. I hope that this research can inform the public about the science incorporated into environmental law, and can be used by policymakers as a measurable metric for evaluating coral reefs in the future.