Below is a sampling of projects supported by NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program. To access a complete list of NOAA coral ecosystem related publications and data, use the CoRIS Geoportal (http://coris.noaa.gov/geoportal/) search tool.
This project provides an assessment framework for evaluating the impacts of land-based sources of pollution (LBSP) on the coral reef ecosystem in southeast coastal waters of Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties. Rapid population growth and intense increases in land development in this region over the past 50-100 years have put the coral reef ecosystem and supporting estuarine habitats under significant stress. Pollutants from these land-based human activities include nutrients (e.g. nitrogen and phosphorus), sediments, pathogens pharmaceutical and personal care products, and other LBSPs. These pollutants are discharged to the southeast Florida coastal ecosystem in large part in stormwater runoff (both urban and agricultural) and wastewater effluent and the management of stormwater and wastewater in southeast Florida affects the pollutants loads and ecosystem impacts. The purpose of this document is to assist the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative (SEFCRI) partners in tackling the problems associated with LBSP by identifying sources of pollution, data availability and gaps, and sources of information from past planning and management activities in southeastern Florida. This report creates a watershed-based framework for understanding and assessing the pollutant sources and loads, and uses nine coastal inlets in the region as the basis for defining the contributing watersheds. This report will provide a roadmap for future LBSP-related data collection and pollution reduction efforts in southeast Florida.
NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) publishes Federal Funding Opportunities (FFOs) in the Federal Register to solicit proposals for coral reef conservation activities, as authorized by the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 (CRCA). This page highlights some of the products produced through the Coral Program's various financial assistance awards. For general information about the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Grant Program please visit the CRCP website.
An important component of NOAA's Coral Program efforts to protect coral reef ecosystems from land based sources of pollution (LBSP) has been the development of watershed management plans (WMPs) and conservation action plans. WMPs and CAPs outline a comprehensive set of actions and an overall management strategy for improving and protecting each jurisdiction's priority watershed sites from nonpoint and point sources of pollution. By providing technical assistance to the jurisdictions, fostering institutional partnerships and leveraging financial resources, NOAA and our partners are supporting the management of land-based activities to effectively address the impacts of LBSP.
Coral reefs and the services they provide are seriously threatened by ocean acidification and climate change impacts like coral bleaching. Here, updated global projections for these key threats to coral reefs are presented based on ensembles of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) climate models using the new Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) experiments. All projections presented within van Hooidonk et al. (2013) are shown in a Google Earth file presented on this web page.
The American Samoa Coastal Use Mapping project conducted in Pago Pago, American Samoa in July 2012. Data was obtained through a participatory GIS workshop designed to gather spatial data on human uses of the coastal and nearshore marine environment in the greater Pago Pago Harbor region known as Fagaloa. The project was intended to fill a critical information gap regarding the spatial distribution of human activities in the American Samoa Coral Reef Strategy priority site in order to better inform planning and management activities.
The Socio-economic Component of the National Coral Reef Monitoring Plan (NCRMP) will gather and monitor a collection of socio-economic variables, including demographics in coral reef areas, human use of coral reef resources, as well as knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of coral reefs and coral reef management. The overall goal of the socio-economic monitoring component is to track relevant information regarding each jurisdiction’s population, social and economic structure, the impacts of society on coral reefs, and the impacts of coral management on communities. NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) will use the information for research and to improve the results of programs designed to protect coral reefs.
The STEER Coastal Use Mapping Project was designed to collect critical information on human activities in and near the St. Thomas East End Reserves (STEER). The project purpose is to improve understanding of the spatial range and intensity of key human activities and uses in this region in order to better inform resource management. Workshops were held on St. Thomas in May 2012, where local experts participated in creating maps of ocean uses for the STEER. Draft maps were presented to the workshop participants and other stakeholders in October 2012 for feedback and edits. The maps were finalized in November 2012. Products include a map book, a supplemental map product, and GIS data files.