Monitoring Coral Reef Marine Protected Areas

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:...

Adaptive Comanagement of a Marine Protected Area Network in Fiji

Adaptive management is an iterative process by which management strategies are adjusted with new information. Although there are calls for adaptive management, few on-the-ground examples of success in conservation planning and MPA network design exist. This article...

Modelling Reef Fish Population Responses to Fisheries

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 Global Estimate of the Number of Coral Reef Fishers

Coral reef fisheries management lacks an accurate estimate of reef fishers regionally and globally. In a study to address this data gap, Teh et al. estimated that there are 6 million reef fishers in 99 countries and territories. About 25% of all small-scale fishing...

Do Some Corals Like It Hot?

The Adaptive Bleaching Hypothesis is a controversial theory that states that stress resistant coral-zooxanthellae associations can develop from frequent and severe environmental stress. This hypothesis is reviewed and future directions for research are suggested....

Critical Science Gaps Impede Use of No-take Fishery Reserves

Coastal marine fisheries are under an ever-increasing risk of collapse due to over-exploitation and human-caused degradation of coastal marine habitats and ecosystems. No-take fishery reserves can be an effective management tool to mitigate these problems. This...

Global Disparity in the Resilience of Coral Reefs

The article reviews whether current knowledge of coral reef resilience, as it has historically been researched specifically in the Caribbean region, is transferrable to Indo-Pacific coral reefs. The authors hypothesize that the Caribbean may be predisposed to low...

Are U.S. Coral Reefs on the Slippery Slope to Slime?

This article has received significant attention from researchers, managers, and the public. It is a bit controversial and the doom and gloom picture presented may or may not most accurately describe the current state of affairs. Regardless, the paper draws attention...

Ecological Persistence Interrupted in Caribbean Coral Reefs

Pandolfi and Jackson quantify the habitat stability in Caribbean coral communities during the Pleistocene, comparing records from several hundred thousand years ago to modern community structure. Pleistocene coral communities demonstrate persistence with similar...
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