Long Term Monitoring of Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Tutuila Island (American Samoa) 1985 to 2001: Summary of Surveys Conducted in 1998 and 2001.

摘要

Coral communities provide important habitat for reef fishes and changes in their condition may have important consequences for the associated fish fauna. The purpose of the ongoing monitoring of reef communities is to determine if the coral and fish communities in Fagatele Bay, and elsewhere around Tutuila, have changed substantially over the last few decades. The coral reef communities of Fagatele Bay and other sites around Tutuila have been the subjects of a long term monitoring program since the late 1970s, supported by the Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary Program. The results of this program have been used to describe the changes in the coral and fish communities of American Samoa during the 20 years from 1978-1995 (Birkeland et al. 1987, 1994, 1996, 2003; Green et al. 1999). This document reports the results from the two most recent surveys in this program (1998 and 2001), and specifically summarises the changes that have occurred since the surveys were last conducted in 1995.