This project entails two studies on the effects of the recent Hurrican Hugo on the sediment geology and the ecology of reef systems in the U.S. Virgin Islands. This project is being facilitated by the Foundations rapid response mechanism. The maultiple thrusts of the work are: (1)- characterization of the sediment export and sedimentation rates at two sites that have a record of pre-hurricane conditions; (2)- documentation and quantifiucation of the reef community changes in four coral reef regions including that at Buck Island National Monument; (3)- documentation and quantification of changes in back reef (seagrass, mangrove) systems; (4)- investigatation of how the hurricane has disrupted the guilds of reef herbivores and the consequences of these perturbations; and (5)- investigatation of the disruption in nutrient fluxes and dynamics in back reef habitats.
