Healthy Reefs
Indicators of Ecological Integrity
Coral reefs are biologically produced structures that provide the habitat and structure for numerous organisms and over time influence surrounding environments. The structure of reefs depends on the opposing processes of construction and destruction, including key processes such as growth, calcification, reproduction, death, reef cementation, and bioerosion. The function of coral reefs is also influenced by complex trophic food webs and subsequent biotic interactions. Reef structure and function vary naturally on both temporal and spatial scales, and are subject to a variety of natural disturbances. Physical conditions also influence how corals exist and thrive.
Healthy coral reefs require intact structure and function, and the key to understanding coral reef health is identifying how one or both may have been altered by human activities. However, not all of these important processes and stressors can be readily measured, adding to the complexity of the challenge of understanding reef integrity.
Because of the difficulty and costs for managers to investigate every possible attribute or stressor, we concentrated only on those that:
- are relevant to the MAR ecosystem;
- are directly related to management objectives or management performance; and/or
- can be feasibly obtained with the means already or potentially available.
