[Coral-List] Ecological resilience assessments - new paper!

[Jeffrey Maynard]

Hi Listers,

I'm writing to bring your attention to an open-access article just
published in *Biological Conservation*, entitled *Assessing relative
resilience potential of coral reefs to inform management.*

Link to article:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320715300926

We describe a process and methods for ecological resilience assessments in
coral reef areas, and present application of our methods in a detailed case
study undertaken in the Northern Mariana Islands in the west Pacific. We
describe how to: collect or compile the required data, analyse the data and
set relative classifications for resilience potential (low to high), use
results to ID target sites for actions that support resilience, and
integrate the results with connectivity information (if available). We also
describe a statistical approach to identifying the resilience indicators
most influential in determining final rankings and discuss the influence of
scale on assessment results.

There are 2 online appendices that supplement the paper (also avail. at
link above). One of these includes 1-page 'report cards' summarising
results for the resilience indicators and our detailed assessments of the
benthic and fish communities at the 78 survey sites, as well as whether
ESA-listed coral species (i.e. *Threatened*) were observed.

The paper described above is complemented by a detailed NOAA CRCP Tech
Memo. Link to Tech Memo:
http://www.coris.noaa.gov/activities/cnmi_reef_resilience/

Our hope is that our paper will increase the extent to which resilience
potential is assessed and explicitly included in management decisions.
Please write Jeff Maynard directly if you have any questions about the
paper/report or the approach described therein.

You can learn more about related projects at: www.symbioseas.org

Thank you,

Jeff Maynard, Steven McKagan, Laurie Raymundo, Steven Johnson, Gabby
Ahmadia, Lyza Johnston, Peter Houk, Gareth Williams, Matt Kendall, Scott
Heron, Ruben van Hooidonk, Dieter Tracey, and Serge Planes.

-- 
Jeffrey A. Maynard
Manager - SymbioSeas
Research Scientist - CRIOBE & EPHE/CNRS of Moorea, Polynesia and Paris,
France.
P (mobile): +1 (910) 616-1096
E: maynardmarine at gmail.com
Skype: jefmaynard

Our group: www.symbioseas.org