Baselines and Degradation of Coral Reefs in the Northern Line Islands

Effective conservation requires rigorous baselines of pristine conditions to assess the impacts of human activities and to valuate the efficacy of management. The study found that top predators and reef-building organisms dominated unpopulated Kingman and Palmyra, while small planktivorous fishes and fleshy algae dominated the populated atolls of Tabuaeran and Kiritimati.

The study surveyed coral reefs on uninhabited atolls in the northern Line Islands to provide a baseline of reef community structure, and on increasingly populated atolls to document changes associated with human activities.