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To fully appreciate the coral reefs and
marine ecology of the Hawaiian islands, you
first need to understand the factors that helped shape their development.
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Geography & Geology
- describes the geological processes that forced the Hawaiian islands up
from the seabed, providing the foothold on which the coral reefs form, and
explains how these are the same forces that will, ultimately, destroy them.
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Reef Ecology
- sets out how the coral reefs clinging to these islands have themselves
been shaped by Hawaii's isolated position at the edge of the tropics, the
oceanic currents, and the prevailing winds, and how this has impacted on the
diversity of the marine fishes, corals and other marine invertebrates found
there. Subsidiary pages provide more detail on the zonation of
Hawaiian coral reefs and the species of coral and fish found there.
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Reef Zonation
- impact of wave energy on the abundance and distribution of fish and corals
into four main zones on Hawaiian reefs
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Stony Corals -
listing of endemic and indigenous stony corals of Hawaii.
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Soft Corals -
listing of endemic and indigenous soft corals of Hawaii.
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Fish Species -
listing some of the near-shore endemic and indigenous fish of Hawaii.
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Island History -
explains how
the islands' isolation has meant that it is only comparatively recently that
mankind has been a part of the island's history, but that it is already leaving its mark...
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Coral reef area - 1,180km2
Percentage of reefs at risk - 57%
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