Structure and Function of Coral Reefs

GOAL:
To develop scientific research on structure and function of Mexican coral reefs, with emphasis on coral reef fish ecology. This project had the objective of providing the factors on which the function and trophic behavior of coral reefs depend upon, and to allow the establishment of agreements and measures for their sustainable management and ecological ordering.

This area of research consists of three main sub-areas:

STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION OF REEF FISH COMMUNITIES
The goal is to characterize the reef fish communities in the Campeche Sound and the Mexican Caribbean, and to study their distribution and abundance in different time and space scales, as well as the trophic and population dynamics of the dominant species.

FOODWEB
Goals: a) To characterize the dynamics and exploitation of resources by the reef fauna, in order to establish the primary energy routes in the ecosystem. This allows the ecological description of the state of health of the reefs and the prediction of tiered negative effects induced by anthropogenic impact to the ecosystem; and b) To determine the reef structure in order to establish the relationship between the habitat and reef landscape with the trophic dynamics.

TROPHIC FUNCTION
The goal is to create, through continuous monitoring and trophic analysis, a database necessary for the development of functional models of the coral reefs of the Campeche Sound and Mexican Caribbean. This analysis would allow structural and functional comparisons within these ecosystems to be made, in addition to allow inferences on metabolism and developmental stage of the coral reefs.