Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México | UNAM · Institute of Ocean Sciences and Limnology

Diseases are major drivers of the deterioration of coral reefs and are linked to major declines in coral abundance, reef functionality, and reef-related ecosystems services. An outbreak of a new disease is currently rampaging through the populations of the remaining reef-building corals across the Caribbean region. The outbreak was first reported i...

The ecology and structure of many tropical coral reefs have been markedly altered over the past few decades. Although long-term recovery has been observed in terms of coral cover, it is not clear how Accepted Article This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved novel species configurations shape reef functionality in impaired reefs....

Understanding how emergent ecological assemblages have diverged from natural states is fundamental in predicting future functioning and services of ecosystems. Coral reefs are of particular concern due to their high susceptibility to anthropogenic stressors. Yet, little is known about their pre-disturbance ranges of natural states, and most reports...

The ecology of coral reefs is rapidly shifting from historical baselines. One key-question is whether under these new, less favourable ecological conditions, coral reefs will be able to sustain key geo-ecological processes such as the capacity to accumulate carbonate structure. Here, we use data from 34 Caribbean reef sites to examine how the carbo...

Marine ecosystems globally have suffered habitat, biodiversity and function loss in response to human activity. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can limit extractive activities and enhance ecosystem resilience, but do not directly address external stressors. We surveyed 48 sites within seven MPAs and nearby unprotected areas to evaluate drivers of cor...

Ocean acidification (OA) has been identified as one of the major climate-change related threats, mainly due to its significant impacts on marine calcifiers. Among those are the calcareous green algae of the genus Halimeda that are known to be major carbonate producers in shallow tropical and subtropical seas. Hence, any negative OA impacts on these...

Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) impacts are unprecedented concerning the level of devastation they have imposed on Caribbean coral assemblages. Although SCTLD affects nearly 30 different coral species, it has been particularly lethal for Pseudodiploria strigosa. Mortality rates for this species are estimated to be between 60 and 100% in the...

Noticeable within the Mexican Caribbean is the Arrecife de Puerto Morelos National Park (APMNP), a marine protected area established as an essential component for managing and protecting coral reefs. In June 2019, we conducted a survey in eight shallow reef sites of the APMNP with the purpose of applying a coral reef assessment method, based on bio...

Ocean warming is increasing the incidence, scale, and severity of global-scale coral bleaching and mortality, culminating in the third global coral bleaching event that occurred during record marine heatwaves of 2014-2017. While local effects of these events have been widely reported, the global implications remain unknown. Analysis of 15,066 reef...

Chapter 12. Status and trends of coral reefs of the Caribbean region, pp. 1-25. In: Souter, D., Planes, S., Wicquart, J., Logan, M., Obura, D., & Staub, F. (Eds.) Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2020. Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, International Coral Reef Iniciative, Australian Institute of Marine Science, & Australian Governement.

The development of coral reefs results from the interaction between ecological and geological processes in space and time. Their difference in scale, however, makes it difficult to detect the impact of ecological changes on geological reef development. The decline of coral cover over the last 50 years, for example, has dramatically impaired the fun...

Understanding how emergent ecological assemblages have diverged from natural states is fundamental in predicting future functioning and services of ecosystems. Coral reefs are of particular concern due to their high susceptibility to anthropogenic stressors. Yet, little is known about their pre-disturbance ranges of natural states, and most reports...

Communities of coral reef fishes are changing due to global warming and overfishing. To understand these changes and inform conservation, knowledge of species diversity and distributions is needed. The western Indian Ocean (WIO) contains the second highest coral reef biodiversity hotspot globally, yet a detailed analysis of the diversity of coral r...

Durante el mes de octubre de 2020, los huracanes Gamma, Delta y Zeta afectaron la costa norte de Quintana Roo. El presente reporte técnico mide el efecto de dichos huracanes sobre arrecifes del norte de Quintana Roo.

This dataset (in Excel format) represents in-situ information on the percentage of benthic cover collected at 714 stations. Seven field campaigns were conducted (2010-2016), in shallow waters (up to 25 m depth) along the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, from Cabo Catoche to Xcalak, as part of the Mesoamerican Reef System. The biotopes of r...

This collection integrates data from the project "Spatial distribution of benthic habitats in shallow water marine ecosystems of the Mexican Caribbean using WorldView-2 (ArrecifeSAM) satellite images (2010-2018)". The study area covers the shallow waters of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, from Cabo Catoche to Xcalak, as part of the Mesoamerican Re...

Comparative analysis of the damages to live coral cover and rugosity caused by hurricanes, bleaching events, diseases, tsunamis, dredging and 10 more risks face by reefs. The analysis compiled data about the severity of the damage, and proposed the extent and frequency of the events to better understand the major risks faced by reefs.

Diseases are major drivers of the deterioration of coral reefs, linked to major declines in coral abundance, reef functionality, and reef-related ecosystems services1-3. An outbreak of a new disease is currently rampaging through the populations of the remaining reef-building corals across the Caribbean region. The outbreak was first reported in Fl...

Despite coral community collapse, the mustard hill coral (Porites astreoides) is a species currently experiencing success throughout the Caribbean. The inshore reefs of Grenada were selected to study the influence of benthic factors on the abundance, size, and coverage of P. astreoides colonies. Surveys of reef communities along established 30 m tr...

The peculiar shallow-water reefs of the Tropical Southwestern Atlantic Ocean have thrived in conditions considered suboptimal (e.g., moderate turbidity, higher level of nutrients, and resuspension of sediments) under the optics of classical coral reefs. Recently, these marginal reefs have been hypothesized to provide climate-change refugia from nat...

In the Caribbean, disease outbreaks have emerged as significant drivers of coral mortality. Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) is a novel white plague-type disease that was first reported off the Florida coast in 2014. This disease affects >20 coral species and is spreading rapidly throughout the Caribbean. In December 2018, SCTLD reached sout...

Mexico harbors several types of coastal ecosystems both in the Atlantic (Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean) and in the Pacific (tropical and subtropical) on which the regional and national socio-economic development depends. They have been studied through several modeling approaches for management, conservation, and necessary ecological studies. In this...

Since 2011, pelagic Sargassum has inundated Caribbean, West African, and northern Brazilian shorelines in increasing volumes. These events are linked to the emergence of a major new Sargassum bloom region in the Atlantic Ocean, and annual high-volume Sargassum beachings are seemingly becoming an established norm. Resultant socio-economic and eco...

A comparison of fish diversity was carried out among 45 sites within four localities in the Mexican Tropical Western Atlantic (TWA) and Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) regions. Several taxonomical and functional diversity indices were considered, and their relationships with the coral cover were investigated in each locality. We found that despite a...

Ecological processes on coral reefs commonly have limited spatial and temporal scales and may not be recorded in their long-term geological history. The widespread degradation of Caribbean coral reefs over the last 40 years therefore provides an opportunity to assess the impact of more significant ecological changes on the geological and geomorphic...

Since late 2014, the Mexican Caribbean coast has periodically received massive, atypical influxes of pelagic Sargassum spp. (sargasso). Negative impacts associated with these influxes include mortality of nearshore benthic flora and fauna, beach erosion, pollution, decreasing tourism and high management costs. To understand the dynamics of the sarg...

In 2005, an extreme heatwave hit the Wider Caribbean, followed by 13 hurricanes (including hurricanes Emily and Wilma) that caused significant loss in hard coral cover. However, the drivers of the potential recovery are yet to be fully understood. Based on recent findings in the literature of coral cover recovery in the Mexican Caribbean after the...

Marine protected areas have been established as essential components for managing and protecting coral reefs to mitigate natural and anthropogenic stressors. One noteworthy example within the Mexican Caribbean is the Arrecife de Puerto Morelos National Park (APMNP), where several studies on the coral communities have been carried out since 2006. In...

Coral reefs in the wider Caribbean declined in hard coral cover by ~80% since the 1970s, but spatiotemporal analyses for sub-regions are lacking. Here, we explored benthic change patterns in the Mexican Caribbean reefs through meta-analysis between 1978 and 2016 including 125 coral reef sites. Findings revealed that hard coral cover decreased from...

Since 2011, unusually large quantities of pelagic Sargassum fluitans and S. natans (sargasso) have been washing ashore along the coasts of some African countries and the Greater Caribbean, impacting ecosystems and economies. We estimated biomass and composition of sargasso arriving to a Mexican Caribbean coast from September 2016 until May 2020. In...

Anthropogenic and natural disturbances have modified coral reef ecosystems over the last decades, ultimately, exerting negative impacts on the persistence of the carbonated matrix and the physical function. In 2014, the Caribbean region saw the onset of a new deadly coral disease, often known as the stony coral tissue loss disease. In summer of 201...

Understanding the effects and benefits provided by the design and management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) is crucial for developing cost-effective management actions. We characterized the management and design of no-take zone (NTZ) networks of eight Mexican Caribbean MPAs. To determine protection effectiveness, we followed a two-step approach....

Este reporte técnico estima los daños causados por huracanes a los arrecifes en el Caribe y determina si existe correlación entre las características de los huracanes y de los arrecifes con los daños causados. Los resultados contribuyen a comprender la severidad de los daños causados por los huracanes y a determinar los parámetros que pueden activa...

This technical report estimate hurricane damage to reefs in the Caribbean and identify the correlation between hurricane and reef characteristics and the damage caused. The results contribute to understand the severity of hurricane damage and to define the parameters that can trigger a parametric insurance whose funds are used to repair the damage...

The carbonate budget of a reef describes the net rate of carbonate production resulting from various biologically physically ly-and chemically-driven production and erosion processes. Thus, budget state metrics can provide important information on a reef's growth potential and on the capacity of reefs to sustain key geo-ecological services such as...

Caribbean reef corals have experienced unprecedented declines from climate change, anthropogenic stressors and infectious diseases in recent decades. Since 2014, a highly lethal, new disease, called stony coral tissue loss disease, has impacted many reef-coral species in Florida. During the summer of 2018, we noticed an anomalously high disease pre...

Coral reefs are highly productive and biodiverse ecosystems, that thrive in tropical marine shallow settings. Mexico is one of a few countries, like Costa Rica, Panamá and Colombia, that have coral reefs and coral-dominated bottom communities at both sea sides, in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, these are subjected to several threats. And...

Functional integrity on coral reefs is strongly dependent upon coral cover and coral carbonate production rate being sufficient to maintain three-dimensional reef structures. Increasing environmental and anthropogenic pressures in recent decades have reduced the cover of key reef-building species, producing a shift towards the relative dominance of...

La presente investigación muestra el resultado del esfuerzo de organizaciones de la sociedad civil, junto con científicos mexicanos para mostrar cómo la contaminación plástica impacta a los océanos, la biodiversidad, la alimentación y la economía del planeta y de México; enfocándose en qué manera ésta llega a los peces que se ofrecen en el merca do...

Caribbean reef corals have experienced unprecedented declines from climate change, anthropogenic stressors and infectious diseases in recent decades. Since 2014 a highly lethal, new disease, called stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), has impacted many species in Florida. During the summer of 2018 we noticed an anomalously high disease prevalen...

Coral reefs are carbon stock in the marine realm. Mexico harbours this valuable ecosystem on both littorals, but the physiography, spatial extension and species composition are sharply different between those in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean (GM-MC) and those in the Pacific littoral (OP). We compiled a database from published and unpublished...

Caribbean coral reefs are undergoing massive degradation, with local increases of macroalgae and reduction of architectural complexity associated with loss of reef-building corals. We explored whether reef degradation affects the feeding ecology of two co-occurring spiny lobsters: Panulirus guttatus, which is an obligate reef-dweller, and Panulirus...

This guidance document aims to provide a review and recommendations on reef management and restoration for risk reduction. It synthesizes evidence of the role coral reefs play in coastal protection and the reduction of risks during disasters. It presents ecological, geological, and oceanographic factors that contribute to the coastal protection cap...

The Gulf of California is characterized by great biodiversity, high biological productivity and important fisheries. Studies on community structure of the reef fish fauna in the region have been conducted mainly in central and southern areas and, except for a few studies that have focused on cryptic species, there are no comparisons of the fish ass...

1.The ecology of many coral reefs has changed markedly over recent decades in response to various combinations of local and global stressors. These ecological changes have important implications for the abundance of taxa that regulate the production and erosion of skeletal carbonates, and thus for many of the geo‐ecological functions that coral ree...

Los arrecifes de coral son uno de los ecosistemas tropicales más diversos que están siendo amenazados por eventos de estrés ambiental y antropogénicos, conduciendo a perturbaciones que potencialmente debilitan la salud ecológica y la productividad pesquera (Cinner et al. 2016). Como estrategia de manejo para las pesquerías, conservación de la biodi...

Los arrecifes coralinos son almacenes de carbono en el medio marino. México cuenta con estos valiosos ecosistemas en ambos litorales, pero las características fisiográficas, extensión espacial y composición de especies son muy distintas; por ejemplo, entre los que se encuentran en el Golfo de México y Mar Caribe (GM-MC) y, los del Pacífico (OP). En...

Over the last four decades the Mexican Caribbean has experienced intensive coastal development, and change on the reef system condition has already been observed. This paper describes the reef system characteristics, at local and seascape scales, and discusses the current status and trends, considering the main research efforts from academia and No...

Sea-level rise (SLR) is predicted to elevate water depths above coral reefs and to increase coastal wave exposure as ecological degradation limits vertical reef growth, but projections lack data on interactions between local rates of reef growth and sea level rise. Here we calculate the vertical growth potential of more than 200 tropical western At...

Coral reefs sustain abundant and diverse macrocrustaceans that perform multiple ecological roles, but coral reefs are undergoing massive degradation that may be driving changes in the species composition and abundance of reef-associated macrocrustaceans. To provide insight into this issue, we used non-destructive visual census techniques to compare...

Raw data on macrocrustaceans per reef Macrocrustacean species recorded on Limones and Bonanza reefs (Puerto Morelos, Mexico): Number of individuals per 50 m2 belt transect, N = 30 transects per reef.