IRES: RUI Undergraduate research on sustainable harvesting in a coral reef ecosystems

Northern Kentucky University Research Foundation (Do Not Use), Highland Height KY

Investigators

Abstract

This project will facilitate a three-year international research experience for U.S. undergraduates majoring in STEM disciplines. Students from a diverse regional population will be recruited as summer cohorts to participate in an intensive and immersive research project on fishing impacts on a remote coral reef ecosystem off the coast of Belize. Each summer cohort will consist of a minimum of four students who will attend preparatory seminars, travel, and work collaboratively over a six-week period. Students will cooperate as a group but will conduct research on a specific aspect of existing long-term ecological studies to understand the ecology of target reef species and the impacts of commercial fishing on their populations. This international research activity will be coupled with intensive instruction on current marine conservation issues, ecological field methods, quantitative techniques for analyzing harvesting data, and the socio-economics of fishing of the Central America and Caribbean region. The comprehensive learning experience will provide students with unique insights into applied ecological science for marine conservation. The intellectual merits of this research are aimed at understanding, predicting, and preventing overfishing. Overfishing continues to plague coral reef conservation efforts, and effective management is hampered by the lack of life history data on key species and quantitative assessment models. Cohorts of undergraduate students will collaborate on a comprehensive study of a multi-species fishery on an isolated coral reef in Belize. Under the mentorship of professional researchers at the Wildlife Conservation Society's Glover's Reef Marine Research Station, each student will collect data on a specific project designed to determine population dynamics and fishing impacts on a suite of key commercially-valuable reef species. Students will study aspects of recruitment to reef nursery habitats, population size structure in primary habitats in fished and protected regions, and dispersal dynamics among reef habitats, as well as fishing yields and fisher preferences by examining catches. Prior to departure, students will receive broad training in marine conservation science, marine ecological methods, statistical and mathematical modeling for data analysis, and cultural sensitivity. After the international research experience, students will be mentored in data analysis and will be expected to present results at scientific conferences. Data also will be incorporated into a new predictive model for this reef fishery. The U.S. researchers will then complete development of a hybrid systems-dynamics/individual-based model for this ecosystem and for further conservation assessment.