Mud, Marine Snow and Coral Reefs

By Eric Wolanski, Robert Richmond, Laurence McCook, Hugh Sweatman

The survival of coral reefs requires integrated watershed-based management activities and marine conservation

Environment Policy Ecology Oceanography

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January-February 2003

Volume 91, Number 1
Page 44

DOI: 10.1511/2003.11.44

Coral reefs are the most diverse of all marine ecosystems, and they are rivaled in biodiversity by few terrestrial ecosystems. They support people directly and indirectly by building islands and atolls. They protect shorelines from coastal erosion, support fisheries of economic and cultural value, provide diving-related tourism and serve as habitats for organisms that produce natural products of biomedical interest. They are also museums of the planet's natural wealth and places of incredible natural beauty.

Eric Wolanski, Robert Richmond, Laurence McCook, Hugh Sweatman

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