Hard coral distribution varies across temporal and geographical scales. Distribution of scleractinian corals was analyzed in 59 reefs in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea of Mexico in two seasons 27 years apart. Data was collected by photography along 20 meter long transects placed at 10 m depth intervals over a 0–50 m depth range. Abundance data was generated by sampling 31 random points in each photographic image. A total of 62 hard coral species were identified. Overall abundance decreased by 67.17% between the two sampling periods. Abundance values were highest at Cozumel Island in the first period and at Chinchorro Bank in the second. Most (91%) of the sampling sites exhibited declines in abundance ranging from 2 to 99.25%. Different scleractinian species experienced declines from 3.72 to 98.7%, although Tubastrea coccinea increased by 16.6% and Porites astreoides by 1430.3%. Based on the Importance Value Index, dominance was highest for Manicina areolata (10.07%) in the first period and Orbicella annularis (10.49%) in the second. Species richness decreased at 67.79% of the sites and diversity at 57.62% of them; however, average diversity values varied minimally between the two periods (3.22–3.14 Bits/Ind.). In both periods, coral species exhibited peaks of higher richness and diversity at the sampled oceanic reefs in the Caribbean Sea. Analysis of site association with the Bray–Curtis index showed strong affinities among sites in the Gulf of Mexico and among those in the Caribbean Sea, although in the latter some differentiation existed between oceanic and coastal reefs. Non-metric scaling analysis showed species spatial distribution to be in well-defined groups that remain intact in both periods.

硬珊瑚分布随时间和地理范围而变化。在距离墨西哥湾和墨西哥加勒比海相隔27年的两个季节中，分析了巩膜珊瑚的分布情况，分析了它们在墨西哥湾和加勒比海的59个珊瑚礁中的分布。通过摄影，沿着20米长的样条线收集数据，这些样条线在0至50 m的深度范围内以10 m的深度间隔放置。通过在每个摄影图像中采样31个随机点来生成丰度数据。总共鉴定出62种硬珊瑚。在两个采样期间之间，总体丰度下降了67.17％。在第一阶段的科苏梅尔岛和第二阶段的钦奇罗银行，丰度值最高。大部分采样点（91％）的丰度下降幅度为2％至99.25％。尽管不同的Scleractinian物种从3.72下降到98.7％，尽管Tubastrea coccinea增长了16.6％，Porites astreoides增长了1430.3％。根据重要性值指数，第一时期的斑节菜（Manicina areolata）和环生双歧杆菌（Orbicella ringis）的优势度最高（10.07％）。（10.49％）位居第二。物种丰富度下降了67.79％，物种多样性下降了57.62％；但是，两个周期之间的平均分集值变化最小（3.22-3.14位/ ind）。在这两个时期中，在加勒比海采样的珊瑚礁中，珊瑚物种均表现出更高的丰富度和多样性高峰。用Bray-Curtis指数进行的地点关联分析显示，墨西哥湾和加勒比海的地点之间具有很强的亲和力，尽管在后者中，海洋和沿海礁石之间存在某些差异。非度量尺度分析表明，物种的空间分布是在两个时期都完好无损的明确定义的组中。