Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2000. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 121 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-121).

Thesis (M.S.)--Duke University, 2001. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-160).

This thesis is composed of two articles. The first is an analysis of long-term survival among A. cervicornis outplants in the Florida Keys, from 2007 to the present. The second is a review of literature that informs coral restoration and guides both restoration practitioners and coral researchers towards greater effectiveness in outplant survival and understanding biological processes involved in restoration. In the first article, despite promising initial evidence of outplant survival and health, the long-term results, using Weibull survival analysis, are discouraging with almost all out planted corals over an 8 year long study exhibiting steep declines in percent live tissue and survival between three and five years. Not only is this 3-5 year collapse apparent in all the outplanted cohorts, but the evidence is highly significant that the length of outplant survival is decreasing with each passing year (diminished resilience). These findings suggest that some shared, likely environmental factor, is increasingly impacting all outplants. Further, no cohorts appear to adapt to the environmental conditions in which these declines are occurring (diminished adaptive capacity), a trend that would be evident if their declines slowed or reversed and Weibull beta-parameterization would show. The second article, reviews several areas of recent study which offer avenues for future research: these include, ecological history and biogeography, developmental pathways of colonial form and function, polarity and symmetry, genetics, wound healing, fecundity, reproduction, sexual maturity and community interactions. The thesis concludes with questions for further research and understanding in the field of coral restoration.

Commercial fisheries in the Florida Keys have experienced a significant decline in participation and harvest over the past two decades, with over half of the fishers exiting the fishery since 1990 and a 50-70% decline in annual landings compared to previous decades. The conventional narrative of fisheries management identifies overfishing and overcapacity as the malaise endemic to open-access fisheries systems, for which the remedy offered is technocratic management. Technocratic management, which seeks to restore ecological integrity and economic efficiency, has been increasingly employed in the Florida Keys, in the form of limited access and property rights measures. I contend that the technocratic management approach is flawed and in a large part responsible for the decline of Florida Keys fisheries because the approach has ignored social sustainability, leading to a significant reduction in fisher participation, the fragmentation of fishing communities, and erosion of social capital. Technocratic management has also underestimated the importance of non-fishery factors, unique to place, and these factors – including population, tourism, and globalization factors – have exacerbated the impacts of management measures. The net result has been the opening up of scarce and valuable coastal space, which was previously occupied by fishers, fish houses and processors, and other fisheries infrastructure, to conversion for non-working waterfront uses. While measures have been undertaken to foster fisher participation and slow down waterfront conversion, these have largely failed due to the measures’ inability to address the core problem, which is the flawed management approach that undermines social sustainability. I provide a revised, comprehensive fisheries management framework that, if implemented, can at least address some of the technocratic management’s shortcomings and prevent further decline in fisher participation and fisheries decline.

Benthic habitat maps provide the spatial framework for many research science and management activities in coastal areas such as coral-reefs. Accuracy, the degree to which information on a map matches true or accepted values, of benthic habitat maps is important because often times the map will be used in decision-making processes about how we manage our marine resources. It is critical that some measure, such as the accuracy, of the map be known in order to give a sense of how the overall map portrays the seascape. This study compared the accuracy in the following map classes; major structure, major and detailed biological cover, and detailed coral cover, of the 2014 NOAA Florida Keys Coral Reef Ecosystem Habitat map using two separate quantitative, in situ, and qualitative, drop camera, data sets in order to assess how the data sets compare to one another. Benthic habitat map classes of the NOAA Florida Keys map were based on a NOAA peer-reviewed hierarchical coral reef habitat classification scheme. Accuracy assessment tests to see how often the NOAA Florida Keys map producer correctly classified the different habitats, included error matrix analyses (overall, user’s and producer’s accuracy), and the tau coefficient. Study areas in the Florida Keys reef tract included hard-bottom reef habitat from Key West to the northern end of Key Largo, and focuses on three regions of interest that encompass the eastern and western Lower Keys and Key Largo. The Qualitative, drop-camera, accuracy assessment (AA) analyses for all three regions of interest gave overall accuracies of 84.2%, ±16.9, at the major level of geomorphological structure, 85.4%, ±16.4, and 73.8%, ±18.7, at the major and detailed levels of biological cover and 70.4%, ±20.6, for detailed coral cover. The Quantitative, in situ, AA analyses for all three regions of interest gave overall accuracies of 86.1%, ±0, at the major level of geomorphological structure, 85.2%, ±1.9, and 50.7%, ±13.4, at the major and detailed levels of biological cover and 47.5%, ±13.4, for coral cover. Qualitative and quantitative accuracies were similar at the major geologic structure (hard vs. soft bottom) and major biological cover (i.e. seagrass, algae) however qualitative AA’s for detailed biological cover (i.e. percent of seagrass, algae) and detailed coral cover (percent of coral) were 23.1% and 22.9% higher than the quantitative AA’s. This trend was also found when analyzing the accuracies for the individual regions of interest. The results suggest that for performing an AA of broad map categories, a Qualitative AA compares well with an in situ Quantitative AA, but for more detailed map categories the in situ quantitative AA is more accurate. Marine resource managers should consider these accuracies when making decisions based on the 2014 NOAA Florida Keys Coral Reef Ecosystem Habitat map.

The Florida Keys is one of the most susceptible island chains in the United States to sea level rise induced inundation because most elevations are lower than 2 m above current sea level. By analyzing a digital elevation model (DEM) derived from airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) measurements using a geographic information system (GIS), this paper estimates the potential impacts of a series of sea level rise scenarios from 0.15 to 5 m on the Florida Keys. The results showed that a 0.5 m sea level rise by the end of this century would inundate a large area, about 66% of the total area of the Florida Keys. However, this extent of sea level rise would not inundate a large percentage of the current population (<9%) and property (<14%). In contrast, a 1.5 m rise in sea level would inundate 90% of the land and 70% of population and property in the Florida Keys. Comparison of inundation dynamics using hypsometric curves demonstrated that, among the major Keys population centers. Big Pine Key is most susceptible to sea level rise, followed by Key Largo and Key West. Thus, inundation dynamics need to be considered in policy-making.

Canopy gaps in many forests are thought of as resetting the successional sequence due to increased light availability. In this study, canopy gaps were identified with a LiDAR digital canopy model in a Key Largo hardwood forest. Sapling structure and composition were recorded in the gaps. Weighted averaging calibration was applied to relative abundances of trees to determine the successional age optimum for each tree species, and weighted averaging regression was used to calculate inferred stand ages for each gap’s saplings. The inferred stand ages were greater in young forest gaps than in surrounding, unimpacted forest, suggesting that succession was actually advanced. Canopy heights in Key Largo were shorter than many other tropical and temperate forests, canopy gaps were smaller and therefore light availability did not vary with gap area. This suggests that the largest gaps may not be big enough to produce the light conditions required to reestablish pioneer tree species. Soil and water conditions in young forest gaps may also favor mature rather than pioneer species. Resetting of the forest successional sequence may not occur without intense disturbances such as fires or major hurricanes that remove the entire canopy and consume or erode soils.

How can architects let their buildings interact with the water while protecting occupants from the potential danger? The two intents are very different and often compete with one, either protection or recreation, as the primary program in one project. Water draws people, everyone likes being near water. People visit waterfalls and the beach just to experience moving water, they go boating and kayaking just to be on the water. Water views and access are considered an amenity that drive up prices in buildings. Whenever possible architects should strive to connect their architecture and water and to let occupants interact with the water. However, water can be dangerous too. Overfull rivers wash away roads and cars. Floods inundate entire cities, and hurricanes devastate huge islands. In addition to catastrophic damage sea levels are rising around the world causing damage and rendering low lying land uninhabitable. Architects must protect against these dangers. If designed correctly buildings can offer shelter from storms and resist rising water of all kinds. For my thesis I decided to study how to reconcile these two conflicting approaches to water. / Master of Architecture

Listed as federally-endangered in 1990, the Lower Keys marsh rabbit (LKMR, Sylvilagus palustris hefneri) exists as a metapopulation in patches of wetland habitat in Florida’s Lower Keys. This study sought to address 2 priority actions identified by the LKMR Recovery Team: (1) monitoring of populations and (2) reintroduction. Monitoring the distribution and status of LKMR populations is critical for targeting future management actions. Informal transects for rabbit fecal pellets were used to survey habitat patches documented in1988–1995 surveys and to identify additional patches of occupied and potential habitat. Next, a buffer was created around patches to help managers account for uncertainty in rabbit movements and to identify groups of patches that might function as local populations. Surveys included 228 patches of occupied and potential habitat, 102 of which were occupied by rabbits. Patches were arranged in 56 occupied and 88 potential populations. Surveys revealed new patches of both occupied and potential habitat. Considering only areas included in 1988–1995 surveys, however, revealed a net decrease in the number of occupied patches. Many of the recently extirpated populations, which tended to occupy the periphery of larger islands or small neighboring islands, were unlikely to be recolonized without human intervention. Reintroduction provides a means of artificially recolonizing potential habitat. Two pilot reintroductions were conducted to evaluate this conservation strategy for the species. The second reintroduction was postponed, but the first effort met all criteria for short-term success, including survival comparable to a control group, fidelity to release sites, and evidence of reproduction. There are a limited number of potential source populations for translocations. Future efforts should consider using in-situ captive breeding to prevent potential long-term impacts to these populations. Few potential release sites exhibited suitable habitat quality and landscape context. Thus, for reintroduction to be more widely-applied for this species, it must be part of a comprehensive management plan involving land acquisition, control of secondary impacts from development, and habitat restoration and enhancement.

Listed as federally-endangered in 1990, the Lower Keys marsh rabbit (LKMR, Sylvilagus palustris hefneri) exists as a metapopulation in patches of wetland habitat in Florida’s Lower Keys. This study sought to address 2 priority actions identified by the LKMR Recovery Team: (1) monitoring of populations and (2) reintroduction. Monitoring the distribution and status of LKMR populations is critical for targeting future management actions. Informal transects for rabbit fecal pellets were used to survey habitat patches documented in1988–1995 surveys and to identify additional patches of occupied and potential habitat. Next, a buffer was created around patches to help managers account for uncertainty in rabbit movements and to identify groups of patches that might function as local populations. Surveys included 228 patches of occupied and potential habitat, 102 of which were occupied by rabbits. Patches were arranged in 56 occupied and 88 potential populations. Surveys revealed new patches of both occupied and potential habitat. Considering only areas included in 1988–1995 surveys, however, revealed a net decrease in the number of occupied patches. Many of the recently extirpated populations, which tended to occupy the periphery of larger islands or small neighboring islands, were unlikely to be recolonized without human intervention. Reintroduction provides a means of artificially recolonizing potential habitat. Two pilot reintroductions were conducted to evaluate this conservation strategy for the species. The second reintroduction was postponed, but the first effort met all criteria for short-term success, including survival comparable to a control group, fidelity to release sites, and evidence of reproduction. There are a limited number of potential source populations for translocations. Future efforts should consider using in-situ captive breeding to prevent potential long-term impacts to these populations. Few potential release sites exhibited suitable habitat quality and landscape context. Thus, for reintroduction to be more widely-applied for this species, it must be part of a comprehensive management plan involving land acquisition, control of secondary impacts from development, and habitat restoration and enhancement.