Environmental Bio-Indicators in Coral Reef Ecosystems: The Need to Align Research, Monitoring, and Environmental Regulation

摘要

A roundtable workshop was held on 24-26 April 2006 at the 14th International Conference on Environmental Bioindicators (14~(th) ICEBI) to discuss environmental bioindicators as they apply to the coral, reefs. Participants discussed procedures and potential bioindicators currently being used to monitor these ecosystems, those showing promise for future use, and candidates for future research and development. Attendees represented research and educational institutions, environmental consulting firms, and US federal government regulatory agencies. Despite the fact that these three interest-groups have similar ultimate objectives of protecting coral reef ecosystems, they are engaged in different activities, using different jargon and techniques, and are pursuing different proximal objectives. Their different perspectives presented challenges for information transfer among the groups.