Contrasting Patterns of Coral Bleaching Susceptibility in 2010 Suggest an Adaptive Response to Thermal Stress

by reefres | Oct 20, 2014

Guest et al. (2012) examine the bleaching and mortality responses of corals at sites in Southeast Asia with different thermal histories during a large-scale bleaching event in 2010 to explore whether corals have the capacity to adapt to elevated sea temperatures. They...

How Are Our MPAs Doing? Challenges in Assessing Global Patterns in Marine Protected Area Performance

by reefres | Oct 20, 2014

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are established for a variety of reasons including: protecting marine biodiversity and habitats from degradation, replenishing depleted fish populations, regulating tourism and recreation, accommodating conflicting resource uses, and...

Malaysia – Communication

by reefres | Oct 17, 2014

Managing Communication to Mitigate Potential Damage of Coral Reef Bleaching Location Tioman Island, Malaysia The challenge Tioman Island, part of the Tioman archipelago, is located about 55 km off the east coast of the Malaysian Peninsula in the South China Sea. The...

News round up

by reefres | Sep 29, 2014 | News

Read about a few new resources and articles for coral reef managers: New handbook for Caribbean coral reef managers New Coral Reef Watch products Lionfish hunters New comprehensive online database of MPAs in the Philippines Reef resilience in French...

Designing Marine Reserves for Fisheries Management, Biodiversity Conservation, and Climate Change Adaptation

by reefres | Jul 9, 2014

Coral reef ecosystem goods and services, such as fisheries, are threatened by local and global stressors. Effectively designed and managed marine reserve networks (areas closed to all extractive uses) can reduce local threats and build resilience of coral reefs. This...

Dive Against Debris

by reefres | Jul 3, 2014 | Upcoming Events

Participate in or join a Dive Against Debris event. Dates Vary. In response to the onslaught of marine debris, one of the biggest ocean issues of our time, Project AWARE launched Dive Against Debris. Created by divers for divers, this global, underwater survey of...

Indonesia – MPA Design

by Cherie Wagner | Jun 20, 2014

Building Resilience into Large-scale Marine Protected Area Networks in the Global Center of Marine Biodiversity Location Raja Ampat Islands, Indonesia The challenge Raja Ampat (“Four Kings”), off the northwestern tip of West Papua Province in Indonesia, includes the...

Palau – MPA Design

by Cherie Wagner | Jun 15, 2014

Designing a Marine Protected Area Network in Palau Location Palau, Micronesia The challenge Palau is located approximately 800 km east of the Philippines, and consists of a series of islands approximately 459 km2 in total size. Palau’s coral reefs are considered to be...

Papua New Guinea – Communication

by Cherie Wagner | Jun 14, 2014

Guardians Protect the Sea in Papua New Guinea Location Kimbe Bay, West New Britain, Papua New Guinea The challenge Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a country that is world renowned for high levels of biodiversity. The country is made up of twenty unique provinces, where five...

Interview with Dr. Graham Edgar

by reefres | Apr 28, 2014 | News

Five Characteristics of Effective MPAs Dr. Graham Edgar and his 24 co-authors recently stirred up the marine conservation world with their article, “Global conservation outcomes depend on marine protected areas five key features”. In this article, they review 87 MPAs...

Papua New Guinea – MPA Design

by reefres | Apr 7, 2014

Designing a Resilient MPA in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea Location Kimbe Bay, West New Britian, Papua New Guinea The challenge Kimbe Bay is a large, well-defined bay (140 km x 70 km in area) comprised of one of the world’s most diverse tropical marine environments,...

Indonesia – MPA Management

by reefres | Apr 7, 2014

Management Plan of Wakatobi National Park Leads to Increased Stakeholder Engagement Through Monitoring Efforts Location Wakatobi National Park, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia The challenge Wakatobi is named after the four main islands of Wangi-Wangi, Kaledupa, Tomia,...

Indonesia – MPA Design

by reefres | Apr 7, 2014

Designing a Robust and Resilient Marine Protected Area Network in Lesser Sunda Ecoregion Location Lesser Sunda Ecoregion, Indonesia The challenge At the southern end of the Coral Triangle, the Lesser Sunda Ecoregion stretches from Bali to Timor-Leste, covering an area...

Palau – Land-Based Pollution

by reefres | Apr 2, 2014

Community Support for Watershed Management Leads to Ridges to Reefs Protection in Palau Location Palau, Micronesia The challenge Palau is located approximately 800 km east of the Philippines, and consists of a series of islands approximately 459 km2 in total size....

Modelling Coral Reef Futures to Inform Management: Can Reducing Local-Scale Stressors Conserve Reefs under Climate Change?

by reefres | Apr 2, 2014

A lack of understanding of the impacts of multiple stressors on coral reefs in a changing climate and the most effective management strategies was addressed in a recent paper using a simulation model. Researchers validated the model at four sites in Bolinao, the...

Catch Rates, Composition and Fish Size from Reefs Managed with Periodically-Harvested Closures

by reefres | Apr 2, 2014

Can periodically-harvested closures provide benefits to small-scale multi-species fisheries? This is the question the researchers, Cohen and Alexander sought to test in the Solomon Islands. They found that 6 of 8 finfish species harvested from closures were larger...

Monitoring Coral Reef Marine Protected Areas

by reefres | Apr 2, 2014

A practical guide on how monitoring can support effective management of MPAs. Produced by the Australian Institute of Marine Science and IUCN Global Marine Program, this publication provides seventeen case studies and information on monitoring methods. Author:...

Modelling Reef Fish Population Responses to Fisheries

by reefres | Apr 2, 2014

This study used marine ecosystem models (Ecopath, Ecosim, and Ecospace modeling software) to assess MPA effectiveness in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. The authors took field data from this site in the heart of the Coral Triangle and found many trade-offs between MPAs that...

A Comparison of Marine Protected Areas and Alternative Approaches to Coral-Reef Management

by reefres | Apr 1, 2014

An objective look at different types of MPAs and their effectiveness in conserving reef resources, the results reveal that three of the four sites that demonstrated greater average size and biomass of fishes within managed areas than outside of MPAs were...

Prioritizing Key Resilience Indicators to Support Coral Reef Management in a Changing Climate

by reefres | Apr 1, 2014

The authors of this study ranked coral reef resilience factors based on their perceived importance by 28 coral reef experts and based on scientific evidence from a literature review. The top 11 factors for resilience management were determined to be: resistant coral...