Monitoring of coral reefs with linear transects: A study of storm damage

Monitoring of coral reefs in the U.S. Virgin Islands through repeated sampling of linear transects revealed that Hurricane David (August 1979) caused significant changes in the amounts of live and dead hard coral cover on these reefs, i.e., cover by scleractinians and the hydrozoan Millepora. Mean percent cover of the most abundant coral species, spatial indices (a measure of bottom topographical complexity), the number of species within transects, the diversity index ( H'), and the evenness ( J'), did not, however, change significantly as a result of this storm. Mortality in corals did not appear to be species specific. Monitoring of established transects proved to be an effective way of quantifying storm damage. With the increasing interest in management of coral reefs, this technique could also be useful for assessing other types of reef destruction.