Temporal Patterns of Coral Reef Benthic Community Structure on Tinian, Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands.

The health of the world’s coral reefs are rapidly changing, drastically impacting coastal ecology and the communities reliant on the reefs. This study was conducted to set a baseline of coral reef benthic structure change in the Northern Marianas Islands over the course of eleven years as part of NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Coral Reef Ecosystem Division, long-term coral reef ecosystem monitoring. Although many islands are being studied, Tinian was chosen as the focus of this project because of its small population density. Due to this, Tinian represents a reef system with limited anthropogenic effects. Towed-Diver transects were taken along Tinian every two years beginning in 2003. Each transect was analyzed using Coral Point Count program to determine benthic community structure. The results of this study showed there was no significant change in percent coral cover. These results, along with results from similar studies on islands with higher population densities, can be used to set a baseline of natural coral reef benthic structure change to help determine the significance of direct anthropogenic impacts.