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This book presents a broad assessment of the present status of the environment in the Asia and Pacific coastal zones. Coastal zones are a precious environment, with diverse biogeochemical elements. They also represent a very important resource base for societal, economic, and cultural activities. As such, they have attracted huge movements of population and development activities, which in turn have imposed pressures on the coastal environment, inducing wide-ranging and rapid changes. The Asia and Pacific region is among those areas of the world where such changes are most active, which is why this book focuses on this particular region. In the present assessment a framework for analysis consisting of three viewpoints was used; the state of the environment, driving forces, and responses. This conclusion to the assessment uses the same framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this chapter, we will see the geographic and societal situation of the coast and its management on a sub-regional basis. The subregion introduced first is East Asia, for which we will see China, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. Coastal zones of East Asia are characterized by diversity of coastal morphology and strong oceanic and climatic activities. They have long suffered from natural hazards such as typhoons, storm surges, high waves, and tsunamis, resulting in huge damage to the human society. At the same time, concentration of large populations, economic activities, and development in the coastal zones are another feature in this region. Recent enormous economic development in the countries has accelerated the pressure to the region's coastal environment together with global environmental changes such as sea-level rise and climate change. Therefore, the region has a strong need to develop a management framework for the coastal zones and its implementation. In this section, we will see the preset status of such efforts in this subregion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s all countries have faced serious marine and coastal pollution, and have been forced to resolve these problems. For instance, Japan has long suffered from frequent occurrences of "Red Tide" in semi-enclosed bays and inland seas. This is symbolic of widespread marine pollution. On the other hand, the USA was challenged by diminishing and degradation of coastal wetlands, and the decline of fishery resources. In parallel with these local problems, global environmental issues have emerged since the late 1980s, including global warming, ozone layer depletion and marine pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding coastal dynamics and natural history is important in developing a better understanding of natural systems and human impacts in coastal zones. This chapter outlines the characteristics of sedimentary environments in coastal zones which must be understood in order to manage and preserve coastal environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The land area of this region is characterized by rain forests, paddy fields, and countless islands, while the coastal area is characterized by its bio-geomorphology such as mangrove forests and coral reefs. Numerous large and small islands subdivide the region into different seas, which are connected with each other by a large number of passages and channels. Deep trenches, high mountain chains, many volcanoes, deep sea basins, and innumerable coral islands form a complexity of phenomena that are not found over such an extended area in any other part of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal zones in Asia and the Pacific are extremely diverse in their characteristics. They range from polar to tropical regions, large areas of which are under the strong influence of Asian monsoons, tropical cyclones, and interannual variability imposed by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Various geomorphologic features also occur, including deltas formed by large rivers, islands, and rocky coasts. These are often accompanied by valuable ecosystems of mangroves, coral reefs, and sea grass beds. Numerous large rivers in Asia discharge large amounts of freshwater and sediments to the sea, with such sediments accounting for about 70% of the world freshwater flow Coastal ecosystems are home to a rich biodiversity and a wealth of biological resources that include abundant fishery resources for commercial and subsistence fisheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Johnston Atoll and Wake Atoll are isolated and independent atolls in the North Pacific Ocean with a long history of military use. These atolls are also frequently referred to by the name of their main islands: Johnston Island and Wake Island. They have in common that they are both coral atolls located in the North Pacific Ocean (Fig. 17.1), both are exclusive properties of the US Department of Defense and neither had an indigenous islander population prior to military occupation. The two atolls are separated by 2,500 km (~1,600 miles) of open ocean. Both enjoyed the protection of being restricted access military bases until recently. In June 2003, Johnston Atoll was abandoned. Wake Atoll is currently in minimal caretaker status due to extensive damage from the last typhoon (Ioke on August 31, 2006). As of May 2007, the future of these atolls is uncertain because of a long-standing political quagmire among US Government agencies over natural resource management responsibilities and financing of the properties. Johnston Atoll (Fig. 17.2) is isolated in the Central Pacific Ocean (16°45' N 169°31' W). The nearest landfall is French Frigate Shoals, 804 km (500 miles) north in the northwest Hawaiian Islands. It is about 1,287 km (800 miles) southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. The Line Islands of Kiribati are about 1,440 km (900 miles) south and the Marshall Islands are about 2,560 km (1,600 miles) to the southwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US Virgin Islands (USVI ) in the northeastern Caribbean, consist of St. Croix (207 km2), St. Thomas (83 km2), St. John (52 km2) and numerous smaller islands (Dammann and Nellis 1992). They are part of the Lesser Antilles and Leeward Islands on the eastern boundary of the Caribbean plate (Fig. 8.1). An extensive platform underlies St. Thomas and St. John and connects these islands to Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands. This platform extends about 32 km north of the islands and then slopes gradually to depths of over 300 m and eventually descends into the 8,000 m deep Puerto Rican Trench. South of the islands, the platform extends about 13 km and then abruptly drops off to over 4,000 m. St. Croix, about 60 km to the south, is on a separate platform which is much shallower than the northern Virgin Islands' platform and extends less than 5 km from shore except on the east end of the island. The deepest part of the Virgin Islands Trough that separates St. Thomas and St. John from St. Croix is 4,200 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distribution of Holocene coral reefs around Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands reflects the tectonic history of the region. By best estimates, the present-day Caribbean formed between 200 and 130 million years (MY) ago, when North and South America pushed apart and Pacific crust moved northeastward (Pindell 1994). By late Cretaceous time (80 MY: Fig. 7.1), Caribbean plate motion was starting to turn eastward, the Aves Ridge (presently southeast of St. Croix ) was forming, and rudistid molluscs were the dominant reef fauna throughout the region (Fig. 7.2). By Oligocene time, the geography of the Caribbean looked much like it is today, and the Greater Antilles lay along a major fault separating the Caribbean and Atlantic plates. Caribbean coral reefs were populated by a much more cosmopolitan fauna than what exists today (Frost 1977; Frost and Weiss 1979). Throughout the Miocene, the Greater Antilles were being torn apart and twisted by both tensional and compressive forces between the opposing Caribbean and Atlantic Plates (Pindell and Barrett 1990; Masson and Scanlon 1991). This has resulted in a leftlateral offset of similar formations on different islands (e.g., the Ponce/Aymamon Formations on Puerto Rico and the Kingshill on St. Croix), as well as counterclockwise rotation of many individual islands (Reid et al. 1991; Gill et al. 2002). On both St. Croix and Puerto Rico, transtensional basins received shallow-water carbonates derived from shallow-water reefs of unknown origins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, 50-100 miles off the coasts of Texas and Lousiana, dozens of underwater features rise from the seafloor near the edge of the continental shelf to form a complex of reefs and banks. While the crests of most of these features lie more than 50 m deep, a small number of them are shallow enough for coral reefs and coral communities to have become established. Two of these features, the East and West Flower Garden Banks, reach within 18 m of the surface and contain well-developed coral reefs (Bright 1977). In addition, a handful of other features in this region, including Stetson, Bright, Geyer, McGrail and Sonnier Banks, contain a mix of coral reefs and coral communities (Rezak et al. 1985). This chapter summarizes information about these high latitude coral ecosystems, and proposes a revision to a habitat classification system to describe the biological communities of this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reef-building, or hermatypic, scleractinian corals are widely treated as tropical organisms, confined to warm, sunlit, fully marine habitats by their obligatory endosymbiotic phototrophic algae (zooxanthellae ) and stenotopic environmental requirements. However, hermatypic scleractinians lacking zooxanthellae are also the primary architects of extensive, complex, biogenic build-ups at outer shelf to bathyal depths from subarctic (71° N) to subantarctic waters (55° S) at temperatures between 4°C and 12°C (Squires 1965; Stanley and Cairns 1988; Cairns 1995; Fosså et al. 2000; Mortensen et al. 2001; Roberts et al. 2006). Such assemblages, usually called deep-sea or cold-water coral reefs, may cover as much (or more) area of seafloor as the 284,300 km2 estimated for shallow warm-water reefs (Freiwald and Roberts 2005 cited in T. Williams et al. 2006). Most commonly, they consist of accumulated skeletal debris and captured sediment ; living colonies, when present, are restricted to a superficial, often discontinuous, veneer (Teichert 1958; Stetson et al. 1962; Wilson 1979; Mullins et al. 1981; Mortensen et al. 1995; Freiwald et al. 2002; Reed 2002b, Reed et al. 2006). Although Rogers (1999) suggested that such coralligenic topographic features fall within the definition of a coral reef based on their physical and biological characteristics, they lie at depths too great to constitute navigational hazards - the traditional diagnostic character of a reef. As such, they have also been called banks, mounds and bioherms, the latter a geological term reflecting their specifically biological origin. Off the southeastern United States, limestone ridges called lithoherms consist of layers of coral-containing skeletal debris and sediment lithified by successive episodes of sub-sea cementation, rather than unconsolidated sediments (Neumann et al. 1977; Messing et al. 1990; Paull et al. 2000; Reed et al. 2005c, 2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American Samoa is rich in coral reefs and all islands are more or less fringed by coral reefs. Although structurally not part of the Samoan chain, political American Samoa includes Rose Atoll, a true atoll, and Swains Island. The coral reefs of American Samoa are integrated into a national protected areas system with the National Park of American Samoa (US Department of Interior) managing some coral reefs on the north coast of Tutuila near Vatia and along the shores of southern Ofu, and southeastern Ta'u, while the National Marine Sanctuary Program (US Department of Commerce) manages Fagatele Bay. Although debated among historians, many believe that the Samoan Islands were originally inhabited as early as 1000 bc. Thus, the division between American and independent Samoa is very recent and pre-Western history of both Samoan groups is inextricably linked. The Manu'a Islands (Ofu, Olosega, Ta'u ) of American Samoa have one of the oldest histories of Polynesia, and the Tuimanu'a title, formerly held by the highest chief of the Manu'a islands, is considered the oldest chiefly title. The title's name is obviously derived from the islands' name and its prestige is because the Manu'a Islands were, at least according to Samoan oral tradition, the first islands settled in Polynesia. During the Tongan occupation of Samoa, Manu'a was the only island group that remained independent because of the familial relationship between the Tuimanu'a and the Tuitonga, who was descended from a former Tuimanu'a. The islands of Tutuila and Aunu'u were culturally connected to Upolu Island in what is now independent Samoa. Still today, all the Samoan Islands are politically connected through the chieftain system and through family connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mariana Islands are a chain of 16 volcanic peaks stretching over a distance of approximately 2,500 km from 13° to 21° N latitude and centered at 145° E longitude (Fig. 19.1). Politically, the area is divided into two jurisdictions, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Guam is a US territory located at 13°28' N, 144°45' E and is the southernmost island in the Mariana Archipelago. It is the largest island in Micronesia, with an area of 560 km2 and a maximum elevation of approximately 405 m above sea level. The northern portion of the island is relatively flat and consists primarily of uplifted limestone. The southern half of the island is primarily volcanic, with more topographic relief, and large areas of highly erodible lateritic soils (Siegrist and Randall 1992; Chapter 18, Riegl et al.). The island possesses fringing reefs, patch reefs, submerged reefs, offshore banks, and a barrier reef surrounding the southern shores. The reef margin varies in width, from tens of meters along some of the windward areas, to well over 100 m. The combined area of coral reefs and lagoons is approximately 69 km2 in nearshore waters between 0-3 nmi, and an additional 110 km2 in federal waters greater than 3 nmi offshore (Hunter 1995). Guam was ceded to the US in 1898 following the Spanish -American War, and was placed under the administration of the Department of the Navy, with a US appointed governor. It was occupied by the Japanese from 1941 to 1944, after which time it was retaken by US Forces. US President Truman signed the Organic Act in 1949 establishing Guam as an unincorporated territory of the United States and granting citizenship to the island's people. A territorial college was established in 1952, which later became the University of Guam, accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The University of Guam Marine Laboratory was established in 1970, and became a center for regional research on coral reefs. The Marine Laboratory has been largely responsible for the wealth of information available on coral reef taxonomy, biology and ecology in the western Pacific, and maintains a database and taxonomic collection as well as access to many regional coral reef-related publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These westernmost territories of the United States are where "America's day begins", and contain the most diverse coral reefs under the US flag (Randall 1995; Paulay 2003). The Mariana Islands have a long history of dedicated coral reef investigations by international and US researchers begun by Agassiz (1903). Despite having been discovered by the Spanish in 1521, these islands were rarely visited by Westerners due to their isolation. The Spanish used the Marianas as a trade-route stop-over between the Philippines and South America, a history that later attracted others interested in finding treasure. In 1742, Tinian was visited by the British Commodore Anson who became rich and famous after pirating Spanish treasure, and in 1765 and 1767, Byron and Wallis revisited the island in continued search of treasure and territories. Accounts of Anson's and Byron's voyages were some of the earliest documentations of the Marianas. In Guam, research received a boost when the USA acquired it from Spain following the Spanish American War, and in the CNMI, when Germany bought the islands in 1899. Coral reef investigations began in 1903 when Agassiz reported about the Marianas in the course of his decade of coral reef expeditions around the world from 1893 to 1902. The German explorer Prowazek, reported on the "raised coral limestones" of the CNMI in 1913. Under Japanese mandate, Sugawara (1934) investigated the coral reefs and Holocene limestones on Rota just prior to the Second World War. At a similar time, Stearns (1937, 1940a, b) reported on Guam's geology, hydrogeology and drew attention to the erosional notches, which have remained informative features for many subsequent investigation (Shepard et al. 1967; Easton et al. 1978; Kayanne et al. 1993; Dickinson 2000). From these beginnings, perspectives regarding eustacy in the entire Pacific Ocean were gained. After the war, intensive US-funded mapping and geologic research led to a series of United States Geological Survey publications (Cloud et al. 1956; Doan et al. 1960; Tracey et al. 1964). The seventh International Coral Reef Symposium took place in Guam and highlighted carbonate and reef studies in the Marianas, and Siegrist and Randall (1992) provide an informative overview and guide. Another excellent review of geology and hydrogeology is Mink and Vacher (1997). In addition to the raised limestone islands of the southernmost Mariana islands, the archipelago also includes nine emergent, purely volcanic islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the second of two chapters on the coral reefs of the five US Line and Phoenix Islands, consisting of Baker, Howland and Jarvis Islands, Kingman Reef, ; and Palmyra Atoll (Fig. 16.1). The previous chapter (Chapter 15, Maragos et al.) covers the history, geology, oceanography and biology, while this chapter covers the status, threats and significance of the five. All are low reef islets or atolls in the central Pacific Ocean administered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as National Wildlife Refuges. These 5 Refuges are among 20 within the tropical Pacific and among 10 that protect coral reefs. Together they are geographically a part of the largest series of fully protected marine areas under unified management in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pacific remote island areas (PRIA) are sovereign United States unincorporated and unorganized territories not falling within the jurisdiction of any other US territory or State (GAO 1997; US DOI 2003). There are eight PRIA and all are under the jurisdiction of the US Department of Interior (DOI). All are low reef islets or atolls in the central Pacific Ocean. Table 15.1 and Fig. 15.1 present the size, location, and regional geography of the five PRIA that are the primary focus in this chapter: Baker and Howland Islands in the Phoenix Islands ; and Jarvis Island, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra Atoll in the Line Islands. All five are located between Hawai'i and Samoa and are National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) administered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The remaining three PRIA: Johnston Atoll NWR, Midway Atoll NWR, and Wake Atoll, are the subject of other chapters in this volume (Chapter 13, Rooney et al.; Chapter 17, Lobel and Lobel). Johnston Atoll is mentioned in this chapter because it is geologically part of the Line Islands archipelago. Wake Atoll, administered by the US. Air Force, is north of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Midway Atoll is located at the northwest end of the Hawaiian Islands and is a PRIA because it was excluded from state jurisdiction in the Hawaii Statehood Act of 1959. This chapter covers the cultural, geological, and biophysical characteristics and history of the five PRIA. The following chapter (Chapter 16, Maragos et al.) covers the status, threats and significance of the five PRIA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI ) represent the northern three-quarters of the Hawaiian Archipelago. This part of the Hawaiian chain stretches across 2,000 km of the North Pacific between 23 and 29 degrees north latitude and consists of nine major islets, coral islands and/or atolls. Numerous reefs, submerged banks and seamounts also exist between and around the main islands. Together with the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI), the Hawaiian Archipelago is the longest, oldest and best studied archipelago on earth. The NWHI are also considered the most isolated and pristine group of coral reef ecosystems in the world (Figs. 14.1, 14.2). The NWHI were first discovered and explored by the ancient Hawaiians during pre-historic time before European contact. Numerous archaeological remains on Nihoa and Necker islands demonstrate that both islands were inhabited by early Hawaiians but exactly when, and for how long, is unknown. References to the islands further west in the archipelago also exist in early Hawaiian chants and legends. When the Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown by the US Government in 1893, the NWHI (except Midway) were included within the new provisional government that immediately was established and renamed the Republic of Hawaii. In 1898, the US Congress passed a resolution to annex the Republic of Hawaii as a Territory. A final step in the political history of the NWHI was inclusion into the Union as a State bestowed by the US Congress in 1959 and approved by a Plebiscite held in Hawaii that same year (Atlas of Hawaii 1998). Midway Atoll was actually claimed separately and much earlier by the US Government in 1859 by a US Captain, N.C. Brooks, under the authority granted to him by the Guano Act of 1856. Midway is therefore the only island in the NWHI that does not actually belong to the State of Hawaii per se (Rauzon 2001). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) comprise a portion of the middle of the 6,126 km long Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain, considered to be the longest mountain chain in the world Grigg (1983) (Fig. 13.1). Located in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean, the Hawaiian Islands have been referred to as the most geographically isolated archipelago in the world. The islands are ~3,800 km from the nearest continental landmass, the west coast of North America. The nearest other island, Johnston Atoll, is located almost 900 km southwest of the NWHI. A distance of 1,500 km separates the island of Hawai'i at the southern end of the archipelago from the next nearest island, Kingman Reef in the Line Islands. Kure Atoll at the northwestern end of the Hawaiian Islands is the closest point in the archipelago to the northernmost of the Marshall Islands, 2,000 km to the southwest. Because of their physical isolation and low levels of marine biodiversity, Hawaiian reefs feature high levels of endemism. Approximately a quarter of the species present are found nowhere else, and the Hawaiian Archipelago has approximately twice as many endemic coral species as any other area its size in the world (Fenner 2005). This unique area is home to over 7,000 marine species (Hawai'i DLNR 2000), the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi, Fig. 13.2), and provides nesting grounds for 14 million seabirds and 90% of Hawai'i's threatened green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) (NWHI MNM 2006). Reefs in the NWHI are dominated by top predators such as sharks and jacks, which make up more than half of the overall fish biomass (Fig. 13.3). In contrast, top predators in the heavily fished main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) make up approximately 3% of the overall fish biomass, which is more typical of coral reefs worldwide (Friedlander and Demartini 2002; Maragos and Gulko 2002). Although resources in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands have been exploited by humans since their discovery by ancient Polynesians, their isolation has afforded some protection and helped preserve their coral reef ecosystems. Additionally, most of the atolls and reefs of the NWHI have been afforded some level of environmental protection for almost a century. As a result, the NWHI are the only large-scale coral reef ecosystem on the planet that is mostly intact, a marine wilderness that provides us with insights on what other coral reefs may have been like prior to human exploitation (Fenner 2005). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eight main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) are the emergent volcanic islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago (Fig. 12.1). The Hawaiian Archipelago is located in the center of the north Pacific Ocean and consists of islands, atolls, submerged banks and shoals, trending northwest by southeast in the between latitudes 19° N and 29° N. The island chain extends approximately 2,400 km (1,500 miles) from the Island of Hawaii in the southeast to Kure Atoll in the northwest. Hawaii is among the most isolated island groups on the planet being located approximately 3,000 km (1,860 miles) from the nearest continent. These islands are the emergent portion of the undersea Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain that was formed continuously over the past 70-75 million years as the Pacific tectonic plate moved north and northwest over a stationary magma "hot spot" (Clague and Dalrymple 1994) at a rate of from 5 to 10 cm/year. Molten lava breaking through the thin rigid crust slowly creates volcanic mountains that eventually reach the surface of the ocean and emerge as islands (Macdonald et al. 1983). As the islands move off the hot spot they undergo erosion and subsidence. Eventually they are worn down and gradually sink, forming low islands and atolls and ultimately submerged seamounts. The eight MHI at the southeastern end of the archipelago represent approximately 5 million years of that cycle. The island of Hawaii is the youngest island with the oldest rocks dating to only about 430,000 years ago. Its youngest volcano, Kilauea, is currently active, along with a newly forming submerged volcano named Loihi located to the southeast of the Island of Hawaii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hawaii hot spot lies in the mantle under, or just to the south of, the Big Island of Hawaii. Two active subaerial volcanoes and one active submarine volcano reveal its productivity. Centrally located on the Pacific Plate, the hot spot is the source of the Hawaii Island Archipelago and its northern arm, the Emperor Seamount Chain (Fig. 11.1). This system of high volcanic islands and associated reefs, banks, atolls, sandy shoals, and seamounts spans over 30° of latitude across the Central and North Pacific Ocean to the Aleutian Trench, and contains at least 107 separate shield volcanoes (Clague and Dalrymple 1987). The trail of islands increases in age with distance from the hot spot (Fig. 11.2) and reflects the dynamic nature of the Pacific Plate, serving as a record of its speed and direction over the Hawaii hot spot for the last 75-80 MY (Clague and Dalrymple 1987). A major change in plate direction is marked by a northward kink in the chain at the end of the Hawaii Ridge approximately 3,500 km from the site of active volcanism (Moore 1987). On the basis of dredged basalts, Sharp and Clague (2006) assign an age of 50 Ma to this shift from northern to northwestern plate motion, thought to be a result of changes in the movement of neighboring plates to the west. Today the Pacific Plate migrates northwest at a rate of about 10 cm/year (Moore 1987). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Navassa is a small oceanic island (5.2 km2 in size) located ~30 km west of the southwest tip of Haiti, 160 km south of the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in the heart of the Windward Passage. Navassa was claimed in 1856 by the United States. Navassa has also been claimed by Haiti since its independence in 1825 and, prior to that, was considered part of colonial Haitian territory. The current Haitian constitution (1987) claims Navassa by name as Haitian territory (Wiener 2005). This disputed sovereignty is a basis of much resource management challenge. From the earliest geological investigations of Navassa (Leibig 1864; Gaussoin 1865) Navassa was recognized to be a carbonate island with abundant fossil corals and a thin cap of oolitic mineral phosphate. Although not guano, the phosphaterich surficial deposits were mined and shipped to Baltimore to be converted to phosphoric acid and used to make fertilizer. Skaggs (1994) provides both a fascinating and disturbing historical account of 30 years of harsh phosphate mining on Navassa after the US Civil War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Puerto Rico, the easternmost island (18°15' N and 66°30' W) of the Greater Antilles, is about 50 km wide and 180 km long on its east/west axis, and has a coastline of 1,384 km including the adjacent islands of Vieques, Culebra, Desecheo, and Mona (Fig. 9.1). Puerto Rico is a "high" island with a central mountain range running east/west with peak elevations greater than 1,000 m. As with most Caribbean islands, the coastal climate of Puerto Rico is usually dictated by oceanic influences. Seasonal rainfall and wind patterns largely follow north/south movements of the Intertropical Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the atmospheric high pressure area in the North Central Atlantic (the "Bermuda High"). Tradewinds are strongest in winter/spring and weakest in summer/fall because of the south/north positions of the Bermuda High, respectively. Conversely, rainfall is greatest in summer/fall and least in winter/spring due to the north/south positions of the ITCZ, respectively. Due to the relative location of mountainous terrain, annual rainfall is high (1,550 mm) on the east, north and west coasts. In contrast, the south coast (especially the southwest coast in the vicinity of La Parguera) receives annual rainfalls of less than 800 mm. As a result of these geographic and rainfall patterns, major rivers are found on the west (e.g., Añasco River) and north (e.g., Manati, Plata, and Loiza Rivers) coasts. Rivers on the south coast are few with intermittent and low flows except for heavy rainfall events (López Marrero et al. 2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although South Florida coral reefs are frequently considered to be confined to the Florida Keys, a complex of relict early Holocene shelf-edge and mid-shelf reefs as well as limestone ridges extends along the continental coast of Southeast Florida (Fig. 5.1) from offshore south Miami (N25°34') northward to offshore West Palm Beach (N26°43'). This extends the distance spanned overall by reefs in SE Florida by 125 km (Fig. 5.2). The nomenclature proposed by Moyer et al. (2003) and Banks et al. (2007) identifying these structures as ridge complex and inner, middle, and outer reef will be used herein. The reefs are arranged linearly and parallel to the trend of the shoreline. They are separated by sandy sedimentary deposits of varying thicknesses that overly erosional hardground surfaces (Duane and Meisburger 1969a, b; Raymond 1972; Shinn et al. 1977; Banks et al. 2007). The reefs themselves are presently not framebuilding but are colonized by a rich tropical fauna otherwise characteristic of the West Atlantic/Caribbean reef systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Florida Keys is an arcuate, densely populated, westward-trending island chain at the south end of a karstic peninsular Florida Platform (Enos and Perkins 1977; Shinn et al. 1996; Kindinger et al. 1999, 2000). The "keys" mark the southernmost segment of the Atlantic continental margin of the United States. The islands are bordered by Florida Bay to the north and west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east and southeast, Gulf of Mexico to the west, and Straits of Florida to the south. Prevailing southeasterly trade winds impinge on the keys, creating a windward margin. The largest coral reef ecosystem in the continental United States rims this margin at a distance of ~5-7 km seaward of the keys and occupies a shallow (generally <12 m), uneven, westward-sloping shelf (Parker and Cooke 1944; Parker et al. 1955; Enos and Perkins 1977). The platform is tectonically stable at present (Davis et al. 1992; Ludwig et al. 1996; Toscano and Lundberg 1999). The reefs and 240-km-long island chain parallel the submerged shelf margin, corresponding roughly to the 30-m depth contour that marks the base of a fossil shelf-edge reef (studies cited use the same criterion). The modern reef tract extends west-southwest from Soldier Key southeast of Miami (25°60' N, 80°20' W) to the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico (24°40' N, 83°10' W) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By virtue of its geographical extent and the size and wealth of its population, US surveyors and academics entered the scientific coral reef world soon after the study of the latter became of interest. But even earlier, the coral reefs of what are today territories of the USA have been noted and, at least cursorily, studied out of necessity since they were threats to vessels along the trade routes. Also the fossil coral reefs of the USA, of which the country has many famous examples, have received much early study and maybe even more attention than the living coral reefs. They hold a special place in sedimentology and economic geology since some of them are associated with the important oil finds that set off the early twentieth-century oil-boom in places like Texas and Utah. We will not treat these in the present volume, but restrict ourselves to the living coral reefs that can be observed in the ocean today. Recent reviews and entry points to the study of the fossil system can be found, among many others, in Stanley (2001) and Kiessling et al. (2002). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of the subtle, low-relief contours seen on bathymetric maps of Florida's Gulf of Mexico (west Florida) shelf and slope (Fig. 4.1), this rim-toramp carbonate platform has and continues to support a surprisingly wide variety of coral reefs as compared to much better-known morphologically complex areas such the Great Barrier Reef. From the mid-shelf to the upper slope, light-dependent, hermatypic coral reefs have formed as a result of hard substrate availability, ideal oceanographic conditions, and sea-level fluctuations. Indeed, the west Florida slope even supports living lightindependent, ahermatypic coral reefs in ~550m water depth (Newton et al. 1987). This paper summarizes the geomorphic variability of these different reef types, their geologic setting, and the present coral-reef biological community. The paper is organized along a virtual depth transect by presenting different reef settings and types starting from the shallower mid-shelf or mid-ramp setting, moving to the shelf edge, and then to the deeper upper slope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Florida is a unique enclave of the Caribbean thanks to the nexus of geography and environmental factors. Tropical mangrove, sea grass, coral reef epifaunal and infaunal sedimentary communities are common from Stuart on the east coast to Tampa Bay on the west coast. Florida is the only state in the continental United States to have such an ecosystem in its coastal waters. Climate and hydrodynamic features support a variety of plants and animals. The Florida Keys are the most Caribbeanlike region in Florida. These "islands in the sun" have attracted millions of visitors and residents; some of the more famous include: George Meade (Union General in the Civil War ), James Audubon (artist), President Harry Truman (built the Little White House in Key West ), Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall (who made the movie Key Largo in Key Largo), Ted Williams (baseball player and avid fisherman), Tennessee Williams (playwright), Ernest Hemingway (writer), and Jimmy Johnson (football coach). Many respected scientists worked their crafts in the coral reefs of the Florida Keys including Louis and Alexander Agassiz, Louis Pourtalès, Alfred G. Mayer, Thomas W. Vaughan, William Longley, Reginald Daly, Lawrence Cary, Walter Stark, Robert Ginsburg, and Eugene Shinn. A significant portion of the foundation of coral reef science is the result of research conducted in the Florida Keys. The first underwater photographs (some in color) of coral reef fish were taken in the Keys. The first coral reef underwater park (John Pennekamp) and marine protected area (Dry Tortugas ) were created in the Keys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]