Status of coral reefs of Upolu (Independent State of Samoa) in the South West Pacific and recommendations to promote resilience and recovery of coastal ecosystems

Ziegler, Maren
Quéré, Gaëlle
Ghiglione, Jean-François
Iwankow, Guillaume
Barbe, Valérie
Boissin, Emilie
Wincker, Patrick
Planes, Serge
Voolstra, Christian,

Open link

Publication date

April 2018

DOI

10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.02.044

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Abstract

International audienceCoral reef ecosystems worldwide are immediately threatened by the impacts of climate change. Here we report on the condition of coral reefs over 83 km of coastline at the island of Upolu, Samoa in the remote South West Pacific in 2016 during the Tara Pacific Expedition. Despite the distance to large urban centers, coral cover was extremely low (<1%) at approximately half of the sites and below 10% at 78% of sites. Two reef fish species, Acanthurus triostegus and Zanclus cornutus, were 10% smaller at Upolu than at neighboring islands. Importantly, coral cover was higher within marine protected areas, indicating that local management action remains a useful tool to support the resilience of local reef ecosystems to anthr...