Table 1 Mean (standard deviation) Years Before Present baselines among various respondent types.

From: Shifting baseline syndrome among coral reef scientists

How many years past (if any) would you use as the ecological baseline for the cover percentage for stony corals in the Florida Keys as a guide for setting restoration targets (on average throughout the keys, bank reef, and buttress zone at a depth of 10 m)?

 

M (SD)

N

With outlier*

159 (826)

52

Without outlier

44 (18)

51

Respondents younger than 60 years–without outlier

44 (20)

27

Respondents age 60 and older

44 (17)

24

Government experts–without outlier

45 (26)

23

Nongovernment experts

44 (9)

27

Respondents with less than 20 years of experience–without outlier

44 (23)

21

Respondents with more than 20 years of experience

44 (15)

30

Experts with less than 1500 dives in the Florida Keys–with outlier

41 (10)

28

Experts with more than 1500 dives in the Florida Keys

48 (25)

22

  1. Note: The data contain one outlier. One respondent reported 6000 Years before present (YBP). The closest response to 6000 was 126 YPB. Therefore, the data are represented with and without this outlier. The numbers represent YBP averages of each expert type. The numbers in parentheses indicate the standard deviations per expert type. The mean YBP baseline for all respondents (N = 51), excluding the outlier, is 44 (1972).