Featured Coral Publications
Below is a sampling of publications generated by NOAA's coral ecosystem activities. Visit the Featured Archive to see a past list of highlighted publications. To access a complete list of NOAA coral ecosystem related publications, use the CoRIS Geoportal (https://www.coris.noaa.gov/search/) search tool.
Palau consists of over 300 islands with some of the most extensive coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific. The archipelago is home to several hundred species of reef-building coral species, many of which are difficult to identify even by experts. This field guide to some of the most common corals in Palau provides a resource for coral reef scientists, managers, monitoring teams, and anyone else interested in learning about reef-building corals. Corals are presented in the conventional taxonomic order, because it puts corals that are morphologically similar together, which facilitates learning to distinguish them. A few modifications of that order have been introduced to help put similar looking species closer together. This guide presently has 164 coral species in 54 genera.
The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) consists of over 600 volcanic islands and coral atolls with some of the most extensive coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific. The archipelago is home to several hundred species of reef-building coral species, many of which are difficult to identify even by experts. This field guide to some of the most common corals in FSM provides a resource for coral reef scientists, managers, monitoring teams, and anyone else interested in learning about reef-building corals. Corals are presented in the conventional taxonomic order, because it puts corals that are morphologically similar together, which facilitates learning to distinguish them. A few modifications of that order have been introduced to help put similar looking species closer together. This guide presently has 80 species in 24 genera.
The Samoan Archipelago in the South Pacific consists of 18 islands surrounded by coral reefs and divided politically into Independent Samoa in the west and the U.S. Territory of American Samoa in the east. The archipelago is home to several hundred species of reef-building coral species, many of which are difficult to identify even by experts. This first-ever field guide to the corals of Samoa provides a resource for coral reef scientists, managers, monitoring teams, and anyone else interested in learning about these fascinating organisms. This is a field guide for the identification of 217 species in 62 genera of hard or stony corals.
Atlantic-Caribbean coral reef ecosystems are in the midst of an unprecedented outbreak of stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD). Characterized by rapid spread, rapid tissue loss, and high mortality rates, SCTLD has affected corals along the entirety of Florida’s Coral Reef and in 22 Caribbean countries and territories, including the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico and the Flower Garden Banks in the Gulf of Mexico. SCTLD is rapidly reducing coral cover in a region already dealing with declining coral reefs. The disease’s persistence in affected areas and continued spread represents one of the most important threats currently facing America’s coral reefs.
As part of ongoing efforts, the Coral Program regularly provides a summary report on its projects, partnerships, and planning process. These activities are all geared toward implementing the Coral Program’s strategic plan which aims to: Increase resilience to climate change; Reduce land-based sources of pollution; Improve fisheries' sustainability; and, Restore viable coral populations.
A new article out in February 2022 in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science describes the process of scoring the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) coral reef status reports for all U.S. coral reef states and territories. By design, the reports were high-level and glossy in order to be easily understood by policy makers and the public. This new article details the technical approaches the authors took to create the scores used in the status reports.
The Socioeconomic Component of the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) gathers and monitors a collection of socioeconomic data in seven U.S. coral jurisdictions. The team continued its second monitoring cycle with data collection in Hawai'i in 2020, and recently released their report of summary findings along with two new infographics. The report outlines current human dimensions information relevant to coral reef resources in Hawai'i, as well as trends between the first (2015) and second monitoring cycles, while one infographic focuses solely on the 2020 findings and the second focuses on trends. Survey results are representative of Hawai'i (further stratified by East and West), Kaua'i, Maui, and O'ahu Islands.
NOAA and their partners developed the first ever guidance manual aimed at reducing erosion and sediment delivery from unpaved roads in Pacific and Caribbean island jurisdictions. This guidance document helps users identify the cause of unpaved road erosion; develop a strategy for addressing the problem; and implement that strategy on a specific road, or on a larger, ecologically-meaningful scale (i.e., watershed or municipality).
The National Coral Reef Monitoring Program released an updated NCRMP plan for 2021 that reflects advances in technology, science, and approach, and continues to stress the program’s strong commitment to collaboration among the participating NOAA line offices, programs, and labs.
