Silent killer: black reefs in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area
Sangeeta Mangubhai
A C and David O. Obura B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Wildlife Conservation Society, 11 Ma’afu Street, Suva, Fiji.
B CORDIO East Africa, PO Box 10135, Bamburi Beach, Mombasa, Kenya.
C Corresponding author. Email: smangubhai@gmail.com
Pacific Conservation Biology 25(2) 213-214 https://doi.org/10.1071/PC18048
Submitted: 22 May 2018 Accepted: 3 October 2018 Published: 1 November 2018
Abstract
The Phoenix Islands Protected Area is in a naturally iron-poor region in the equatorial central Pacific. The introduction of iron to this environment from shipwrecks is linked to proliferation of turf algae and cyanobacterial mats, and the formation of degraded ‘black reefs’. No recovery has been documented at black reefs observed between 2003 and 2015.
References
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