In the meantime, here's the abstract for the Panama meetings....

DISTURBANCE EFFECTS OF HURRICANE ANDREW AND TROPICAL STORM GORDON ON FLORIDIAN REEF CORALS. Meier, O.W., and J.W. Porter. Department of Biology, University of Charleston, Charleston, SC, 29424. Hurricanes are relatively frequent events in tropical and subtropical coastal areas. Because these are the regions in which coral reefs are located, and most well-developed reefs occur in shallow water, it is important to know how these disturbances help structure coral reef communities. We have monitored two reefs in Biscayne National Park, Florida since 1989 by permanent and repeatable methods. In 1992, following three years of baseline monitoring, Hurricane Andrew passed directly over these stations. In 1994, the eye of Tropical Storm Gordon passed south of the same reefs. We resurveyed the stations within 3 weeks of each cyclone event. Our data record is unusual: because of our monitoring system, we have tracked numbers and areas of individual coral colonies through time, and through two major storm events. This has allowed us to characterize and statistically analyze certain events we would not otherwise have observed. Potential "strategies" of coral life history and morphology for surviving disturbances are threefold: fragmentation, sexual reproduction, and persistence.

This work was performed by Ouida Meier, James Porter, and the Porter lab at the University of Georgia.