Biological homogenization is occurring across terrestrial, aquatic, and marine systems. Among many of the problems associated with biological homogenization are reduced genetic diversity, reduced ecosystem resiliency, and altered ecosystem function. Although the ecological effects of biological homogenization have been well studied, the societal and social affects of biological homogenization have not been studied to the same extent. The aim of this paper is two-fold: (1) to investigate whether or not biological homogenization is happening on tropical reefs off the coast of Florida and (2) to understand how social values could potentially affect the degree of biological homogenization. Using dive survey data from Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) online database of individual dives performed on multiple coral reefs off the coast of Florida, we performed hierarchical clustering comparing species composition between sites through time.
Results/Conclusions
We found evidence of homogenization of some coral reef communities, but not all. We also postulate theoretical interactions between societal values, diver-practices, diver experience, and severity of homogenization. Overall, we demonstrate that tropical reefs off the coast of Florida are socio-ecological systems that are vulnerable to biological homogenization.