Human Impacts to Coastal Ecosystems in Puerto Rico (HICE-PR): the Río Loco Watershed (southwest PR)

Juan Luis Torres-Pérez, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, juan.l.torresperez@nasa.gov (Presenter)
Maritza Barreto, University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras, maritzabarretoorta@gmail.com
Jorge Ortiz, University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras, jorgeortiz.ites@gmail.com
Luis Santiago, University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras, luis.santiago47@upr.edu
Liane Guild, NASA ARC, liane.s.guild@nasa.gov
Shimelis Gebriye Setegn, Florida International University, ssetegn@fiu.edu
Roy Armstrong, Remote Sensing Consultants, royaarmstrong@yahoo.com
Carlos Ramos-Scharrón, University of Texas at Austin, cramos@austin.utexas.edu

Since the 1940’s, Puerto Rico’s coastal and marine ecosystems (CMEs), like beaches, coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses, have suffered the effects of anthropogenic stresses associated with population growth, land use changes and direct extraction of resources. The main goal of the HICE-PR project is to evaluate the impacts of land use/land cover changes on the quality and extent of CMEs in two priority watersheds in Puerto Rico (Manatí and Guánica). Here, we present a summary of our first year of efforts within the Río Loco Watershed (Guánica). We have established collaboration with local agencies in the Guánica watershed and through the Watershed Coordinator now have additional site access and data collection coordination with established projects. The first field campaign (November 2014) focused on the collection of benthic data within the La Parguera-Guánica reef platform and the establishment of sediment traps in Guánica Bay and in the watershed that augment existing sediment sampling stations. Coral cover ranged within and between reefs from 0.2-30%. Cover of additional benthic components (i.e., macroalgae and the encrusting sponge Cliona) dominate in most of the reefs sampled, which creates concern about the resilience of these degraded sites to support biodiversity and fisheries and maintain coastal protection. A preliminary assessment of runoff and sediment production from coffee farms located near the headwaters of the watershed was conducted in 2014 through rainfall simulation experiments. Historic and current imagery is being collected for land cover/land use change analysis and cover change of CMEs, and a database of inputs for hydrological modeling is underway. Second year field activities include: 1) characterization of additional reef sites to increase our temporal dataset, for continuity and to compare with biodiversity estimates from an earlier NASA-funded IDS project (2006-2009), 2) characterizing water optical properties and their possible correlation to the benthic data, 3) bi-weekly collection and analysis of sediment data, and 4) development and implementation of surveys for user attribute valuation and environmental concern.

Presentation: 2015_Poster_TorresPrez_72_78.pdf (3667k)

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Theme 2: Landscapes to coasts: understanding Earth system connections   (Mon 1:30 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Related Activity: Related Activity or Previously Funded CC&E Activity not listed ...details

Poster Location ID: 72