Comparison between Atlantic and Pacific Tropical Marine Coastal Ecosystems: Community Structure, Ecological Processes, and Productivity. Results and Scientific Papers of a Unesco/COMAR Workshop (Suva, Fiji, March 24-29, 1986). Unesco Reports in Marine Science 46.

This report presents the Unesco workshop conclusions concerning important differences among tropical seas in terms of ecological processes in coastal marine ecosystems, and the corresponding implications for resource management guidelines. The conclusions result from the presentation and discussion of eight review papers which are included in this document. These are: (1) "Nutrient Pools and Dynamics in Tropical, Marine, Coastal Environments, with Special Reference to the Caribbean and Indo-West Pacific Regions" (W. J. Wiebe); (2) "Nutrient Availability as a Major Determinant of Differences Among Coastal Hard-Substratum Communities in Different Regions of the Tropics" (Charles Birkeland); (3) "Sponge Biomass as an Indication of Reef Productivity in Two Oceans" (C. R. Wilkinson); (4) "Interoceanic Differences in Architecture and Ecology: the Effects of History and Productivity" (G. J. Vermeij); (5) "A Comparison of Some Ecological Processes on Coral Reefs of the Caribbean and the Great Barrier Reef" (P. W. Sammarco); (6) "Characteristics of Fish Communities on Coral Reefs and in Potentially Interacting Shallow Habitats in Tropical Oceans of the World" (J. D. Parrish); (7) "Interoceanic and Regional Differences in the Reproductive Biology of Reef-Associated Fishes" (R. E. Thresher); and (8) "Reproduction and Recruitment of Corals: Comparisons Among the Caribbean, the Eastern Pacific, the Indo-West Pacific, and the Red Sea" (R. H. Richmond). (TW)