Development and Land Use Impacts on Marine Ecosystems in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI)

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Date

2017-04-25

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Repository Usage Stats

179
views
352
downloads

Abstract

Anthropogenic and natural stressors have long been a source of concern as they relate to water quality and marine ecosystem health, particularly in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI). Although many studies have been conducted in the USVI on factors influencing near-shore ecosystems, most are concentrated on just one or two inputs leaving data gaps. By conducting a meta-analysis of available long-term data produced by different organizations in ArcGIS, correlations between the following factors were observed: 1) land use 2) development 3) water quality and 4) coral health. In areas with a high percentage of land development, lower water quality and reduced live coral cover were observed at corresponding time scales. The results indicate the importance of linking multiple parameters to overall ecosystem health in order to develop focused management strategies to protect fragile near-shore environments.

Description

Provenance

Citation

Citation

Rohrs, Suzanne (2017). Development and Land Use Impacts on Marine Ecosystems in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI). Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/14082.


Except where otherwise noted, student scholarship that was shared on DukeSpace after 2009 is made available to the public under a Creative Commons Attribution / Non-commercial / No derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) license. All rights in student work shared on DukeSpace before 2009 remain with the author and/or their designee, whose permission may be required for reuse.