Lesiones naturales y regeneración de tejido en ramets del coral Montastraea annularis (Scleractinia: Faviidae) en un arrecife degradado del Caribe Colombiano

natural lesions and regeneration of ramets of montastraea annularis (scleractinia: faviidae) in a degraded reef of the colombian caribbean. currently, montastraea annularis populations are suffering from high partial mortality rates; yet few studies have determined type, frequency and intensity of natural lesions in situ. during a year we followed natural lesions that appeared on healthy ramets of a population on a degraded reef within a marine protected area in colombia, to infer the effect on population size structure. from september 2003 to september 2004, 94% of the ramets presented lesions caused by bleaching, predation; or algae, sponge and borrower interactions. predation caused 47% of the lesions and algae 36%; most lesions (85%) were small (<5cm2), although some were bigger than 60cm2 (0.3%). lesion recovery was high (83%), but 11.2% did not recover or grow. on 2.5% algae invasion was seen. bleaching lesions affected more ramet area (>60% of its live tissue) and were evident from september to november, yet total recovery was found in three months. in contrast, lesions by algae (36%), showed less recovery (6.7%), and a tendency to grow in time. in general, percentage of affected tissue area of a ramet in any month was lower than 10%. nevertheless from may to september, the area affected was larger (10-50%) due to an increase in frequency and abundance of predation, bleaching and algal damage, and a decrease in recovery. at the end of the year, lesions that did not recover caused partial mortality in 25% of the ramets. ramets with lesions shrunk throughout the year and by the end of year, 21% passed to a smaller class size. rev. biol. trop. 57 (4): 939-954. epub 2009 december 01.