info request- global co

[Mark Eakin]

        Reply to:   RE>>info request: global coral reef coverage

Tim,

In the paper that I presented in Panama, I present and discuss briefly some of
the current estimates of reef area.  Much of the information is from Joanie
Kleypas.  The paper is:

CORAL REEF STATUS AROUND THE WORLD: WHERE ARE WE AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
C.M. Eakin, J.W. McManus, M.D. Spalding, S.C. Jameson. Proc. 8th Intl. Coral
Reef Symposium, Panama.  in press.

It can be found on the WWW at:
http://www.ogp.noaa.gov/misc/coral/8icrs/

The section of interest is:
While the most widely cited estimate of the world's coral reef area is 617,000
km^2 (Smith 1978), others have calculated estimates as low as 230,000 km^2
(Spalding in press) and as high as 1,500,000 km^2 (Copper 1994; Kleypas pers.
comm.) (Web Figure 1: Reef Area Estimates). Spalding suggests that reef area
estimates are likely to span an order of magnitude based solely on the
definition of reef that is used and results of modeling by Kleypas and others
are strongly dependent upon parameterization.

Cheers,
Mark
__________________________________________________________
C. Mark Eakin, Ph.D.
NOAA/Global Programs, 1100 Wayne Ave., Suite 1210
Silver Spring, MD  USA  20910-5603
Voice: 301-427-2089 ext. 19              Fax: 301-427-2073
Internet: eakin at ogp.noaa.gov