Resumo de Coral Reefs - SPALDING,RAVILIOUS,GREEN

The World Atlas of Coral Reefs begins with eighty
pages of general information. Chapter one surveys the geology, geography, and
biology of coral reefs, describing patterns in their diversity and some of the
more prominent organisms found on them. Chapter two looks at changing human
uses of reefs, at the growth of tourism and diving, and at some of the threats
reefs face ? pollution, sedimentation, unsustainable fishing, direct physical
damage, bleaching, crown-of-thorns starfish, coral disease ? and conservation
responses. And a brief third chapter on reef mapping covers both its history
and modern techniques.

The bulk of the Atlas is a world-wide survey of reefs, region by
region and country by country. (I skimmed much of this, reading in full only
the sections on Indonesia, Australia, and
a few other countries.) For each significant reef area, this covers the same
topics surveyed in chapters one and two, but with local details. I found this
quite readable, even when it goes into detail about such things as currents and
species numbers, but the outstanding feature of the Atlas is its maps.
Produced just for this volume, these show areas of reef and mangroves and mark
the location of dive centers and protected areas. They are on a generous scale,
with seven full-page maps covering Australian reefs, for example: one overall
map, one for each of the west and northern coasts, and four covering the Great
Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea. The least
interesting material, in contrast, is a table for each country listing all the
protected reef areas, with their status, size, and the date they were created.
This really could have been left to an appendix in a smaller font, or even
relegated to a web site somewhere.

All of this is liberally illustrated with color photographs, but though
effective these are relatively small, mostly around an eighth or a quarter of a
(quarto) page in size, and the Atlas makes no attempt at "coffee
table" status. Fairly extensive bibliographies at the end of each chapter
contribute to the academic feel. Although it should attract substantial numbers
of general readers, the primary audience for the World Atlas of Coral Reefs
will be marine biologists, conservationists, and divers.

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