Large-scale coral recruitment patterns on Mona Island, Puerto Rico: evidence of a transitional community trajectory after massive coral bleaching and mortality

Coral reefs have largely declined across the northeastern Caribbean following the 2005 massive bleaching event. Climate change-related sea surface warming and coral disease outbreaks of a white plague-like syndrome and of yellow band disease (YBD) have caused significant coral decline affecting massive reef building species (i.e., Orbicella annularis species complex) which show no apparent signs of recovery through larval sexual recruitment. We addressed coral recruit densities across three spur and groove reef locations along the western shelf of remote Mona Island, Puerto Rico: Punta Capitán (PCA), Pasa de Las Carmelitas (PLC), and Las Carmelitas-South (LCS). Data were collected during November 2012 along 93 haphazard transects across three depth zones (