Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystems Program

The Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystems (CCRE) Program is a long-term field site dedicated to investigations of coral reefs and associated mangroves, seagrass meadows, and sandy bottoms.  Field operations are based at the Carrie Bow Cay Field Station on the Meso-American Barrier Reef in Belize.

Carrie Bow Cay Field Station serves as a permanent site in the Smithsonian's Tenenbaum Marine Observatories Network, a global-scale network of sites which spans latitudes and ocean basins.  For over forty years, research at Carrie Bow Cay Field Station has focused on the topography, origin, geological development, and oceanography of the Meso-American Reef and its numerous islands, as well as the biodiversity, evolution, and ecology of its organisms and communities.