Waddell, J. E. (ed.)

The state of coral reef ecosystems of the United States and Pacific Freely Associated States: 2005

2005

Silver Spring, MD

NOAA/NCCOS Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessments Biogeography Team

534

NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 11

"The purpose of this report is to provide an assessment of the current condition of coral reef ecosystems in U.S. jurisdictions, including the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Navassa, Florida, Flower Garden Banks and other banks of the Gulf of Mexico, Hawaii, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, American Samoa, the Pacific Remote Island Areas, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). The report also provides an examination of coral reefs in the Pacific Freely Associated States (FAS), including the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Republic of Palau. The report focuses primarily on shallow-water portions of these states and territories, from the shoreline to the maximum depth at which sunlight-dependent corals can survive. Coral communities occurring in deep and cold waters are the subject of a complementary report currently under development. This report is the second in a series of national coral reef ecosystem status reports. The initial report, The State of Coral Reef Ecosystems of the United States and Pacific Freely Associated States: 2002 (Turgeon et al., 2002), is similar to this report in that it incorporates the work of many scientists and managers from across the world. The first report provided a broad introduction to and a preliminary look at the status of coral reef ecosystems and was based primarily on qualitative information from the contributing authors. The initial report also included a considerable amount of background information that is not included in this report. This current report is based primarily on the analysis of monitoring data collected by scientists rather than quantitative assessments of ecosystem conditions. It utilizes the most recent monitoring data from all available sources, including but not limited to the activities supported by the Federal grant program that supports selected monitoring efforts in U.S. Jurisdictions and the FAS. This report also includes a mapping component, which provides an analysis of the spatial extent of coral reef ecosystem habitats within each jurisdiction based on the estimated area in nearshore waters to 20 meters of water depth. It is critical to keep in mind that the term 'coral reef ecosystems' includes not only the coral reefs themselves, but also the associated habitats that are functional components of the ecosystem, such as mangroves, seagrass and macroalgae beds, and unconsolidated sediments."

Funded by NOAAs Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and from many of the other federal, state, territorial, commonwealth, and non-governmental partners.

Coral Reef Conservation Program