# Presentation: 170587

## NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystems Research Plan

**NOAA ****Coral Reef Ecosystems Research Plan**

**Notes:**
Good morning.  I’m here to talk about a CRE Research Plan that NOAA is developing. I’m especially please to be here, because we are in the early stages of our planning process.  I’m not here to present a finalized plan, but to tell you about a process that we’ve started and how you can contribute to it.  

By supporting and conducting coral reef ecosystem research, NOAA seeks new knowledge about ecosystem condition and function – new knowledge that has and will continue to lead to innovative diagnostics, treatments, and preventive strategies to reduce threats and improve coral reef ecosystem health.

## Identifies where and what kind of intervention is needed – mapping & assessment.
Expands management options – tool & technology development. 
Guides implementation of these management programs – socioeconomics.
Tracks and evaluates our success – monitoring.

- Expands management options – tool & technology development.
- Guides implementation of these management programs – socioeconomics.
- Tracks and evaluates our success – monitoring.

- NOAA Research

**Notes:**
Ecological concepts and information derived through research, including the incorporation of local knowledge, underpin the management of coral reef ecosystems.  
Mapping and assessment efforts are used to identify where and what kind of intervention is needed. 
Targeted, management-orient research and technique development are applied to affect the trend in coral reef ecosystems. 
Socio-economic assessments of the relationship between ecosystem health and human uses of reefs guide implementation of these management programs.
Monitoring allows us to evaluate our success and adapt our management programs as needed.

## Why are we doing this plan?

**This plan is to support the**
**NOAA Programs **
**that conduct **
**coral activities**
-  The Research Plan will be used to guide all
-     NOAA Coral Programs that conduct research
-  Improve the link between science and management.

**Notes:**
This CRE Research Plan is NOAA’s attempt to strengthen and formalize the link between science and management.  
We often talk about ways in which science can inform management, but, as Bill Causey noted this morning in his talk on Climate Change and Coral Bleaching, the reverse must also be true.  Management needs to inform science.

Coral reefs are in decline and we have neither the luxury of time nor unlimited funds to study reefs. We therefore need to insure that our research program is efficient, applied, and focused on priority management needs.  

The NOAA CRE Research Plan is designed to guide NOAA’s coral reef ecosystem research funding over the next decade, and to clarify the importance of the program in managing and documenting the health of US coral reef ecosystems.  The Plan is being developed by OAR and NOS with input and representation from all NOAA line offices.

An integrated, outcome-based and regionally implemented research program, that is responsive to the priorities articulated by the CRTF and The State of the Reefs reports, must be part of NOAA’s Coral Conservation Program if the agency is to be successful in achieving and documenting success of its stated goals.    

- The goal of
- 	is to provide managers with scientific understanding and tools to protect and manage coral reef ecosystems.

**Notes:**
Our goal statement continues the theme that coral reef ecosystem research must be unambiguously linked to the information needs of managers and policymakers.  The goal of CRERP is to provide guidance on priority research directions to meet these information needs.  (to provide managers with scientific understanding and tools to protect healthy coral reef ecosystems and reverse the degradation of those that have been impaired by anthropogenic stresses.)

## What actions need to taken? 

What are the information needs of managers to support and evaluate their actions? 

**W****hat are the information needs of managers to support and evaluate their actions? **

- NOAA CRE Research Plan

**Notes:**
There is general consensus among managers and scientists that the effects of multiple stressors-- interacting among local, regional, and global scales -- have pushed coral reefs to a point where prompt and massive increases in protection are needed, or coral reefs as they are currently known will be gone by mid-century.  Coral reefs will not go extinct, but they will be different. What actions need to be taken?  And what are the information needs of managers to both support and evaluate their actions?  

## Scope of Research Plan

- Scope of Research Plan

- Covers FY2005-2010
- Audience = NOAA
- Covers ALL NOAA’s coral reef research activities, including:
- Strategic Research
- Mapping
- Monitoring
- Assessment
- Socioeconomic Research

**©**** Mike Risk**

**Notes:**
The plan will cover our next five years of research
.  
The primary audience is NOAA – the plan is designed to guide our actions. However, we hope the plan will be useful to others conducting research.  Knowing what NOAA is and is not focusing on should improve coordination of related programs and increase coverage with other groups picking up areas not within NOAA’s plan.

The Plan covers all of our CRE research activities.  Defined as......

## 
ITMEMS1 and ITMEMS2
Implications for Coral Reef Management and Policy, 9th ICRS
NOAA’s State of the Coral Reef Ecosystems
NOAA offices – ie. NOAA Fisheries and Sanctuaries
NCRI and NCORE conferences
International – i.e. AIMS National Research Priorities

- ITMEMS1 and ITMEMS2
*Implications for Coral Reef Management and Policy*, 9th ICRS
- NOAA’s State of the Coral Reef Ecosystems
- NOAA offices – ie. NOAA Fisheries and Sanctuaries
- NCRI and NCORE conferences
- International – i.e. AIMS National Research Priorities

- NOAA CRE Research Plan

**Notes:**
Identifying NOAA research priorities for U.S. coral reefs is at first glance an overwhelmingly complicated endeavor, since reefs are found across a wide range of oceanographic locations and conditions, from the Pacific to the Caribbean, adjacent to small and large island communities or with substantial continental influence, and ranging from metropolitan to remote (Table).  

These are intimating questions, but a large number of meetings and workshops have been conducted in recent years to address these two questions.  In particular: 

Two international meetings with a management focus - ITMEMS1 and ITMEMS2 (International Tropical Marine Ecosystems Management Symposium) - were held in 1998 and 2003; 
The Ninth International Coral Reef Symposium in 2000 included over 1400 papers and a synthesis document was produced entitled, Implications for Coral Reef Management and Policy; 
NOAA published its 2002 State of Coral Reef Ecosystems of the U.S. and Pacific Freely Associated States, which includes a summary of research and monitoring programs needed to support management priorities;
Various government agencies have developed their own sets of research priorities for coral reefs (for example NMFS and NMSP in Florida and Hawaii); and
The Australian Institute of Marine Science recently published their National Research Priorities and Implementation Plan for management of the Great Barrier Reef.

We will be drawing on the outcomes of these groups.

## Coral Reef Research Prioritieswill be driven by...

- The* Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000*:
*National Coral Reef Action Strategy* (2002)
*The State of Coral Reef Ecosystems of the United States and Pacific Freely Associated States*
- U.S. Coral Reef Task Force
*The National Action Plan to Conserve Coral Reefs *(2000)
- Improved Prioritization of needs in Oct. 2002 to a threat-based focus:
- Land-based sources of pollution
- Overfishing
- Climate change, Coral bleaching, and Coral Disease
- Local Action Strategies
- Regional Research Priorities
- Atlantic vs. Pacific

**Notes:**
Congressional Mandates and the CRTF also offer guideance.  
 The 2000 National Action Plan to Conserve Coral Reefs and the 2002 National Coral Reef Action Strategy provide state-of-the-art assessments of threats to coral reefs at the regional level.  Such assessments are useful because they help to identify and prioritize management strategies.

At the PR CRTF meeting, regional threats were identified.

## Regional High Priority Threats

**ATLANTIC**
- Climate Change and Coral Bleaching
- Coral Diseases
- Coastal development and runoff
- Coastal pollution
- Fishing
- Ships, boats, and groundings

**PACIFIC**
- Coastal development and runoff
- Coastal pollution
- Tourism and Recreation Fishing
- Ships, boats, and groundings
- Invasive Species
- Marine Debris

**Notes:**
In The State of the Reefs, coral reef managers and scientists came to a consensus on the major threats to each of the eight regions that contain coral reefs (Table 1).  As the sources of these stresses often originate from land-based activities, reversing degradation and protecting reefs requires a fully integrated coastal management approach (Gibson et al. 1998, Salam et al. 2001).  Although the management approaches required to protect coral reefs mainly pertain to the management of people (Olsen 1997, Hatcher 1999), the decisions made must be based on good science.  

The Plan will address, at a minimum, these threats.

## Coral Reef Regions

**ATLANTIC**
- Puerto Rico
- U.S. Virgin Islands
- Florida Keys, SE Florida, W. Florida Shelf
- Flower Garden Banks
- Navassa Island

**PACIFIC**
- Main Hawaiian Islands
- NWHI
- American Samoa
- Guam
- Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
- Pacific Freely Associated States
- Pacific Remote Island Areas

**Notes:**
In The State of the Reefs, coral reef managers and scientists came to a consensus on the major threats to each of the regions that contain coral reefs.  

In recognition of the localized nature of many of these threats, the Research Plan will be national in its scope, but regional in its implementation. 

## Who is in the Process?	

- Steering Group
- Co-Chaired by OAR and NOS
- Consists of Coral Matrix representatives from
- 	NESDIS, NOS, NMFS, and OAR
- Writing Team
- NOAA + partners
- Review Group A
- Consists of Individuals or Groups within NOAA
- Review Group B
- Consists of Individuals or Groups outside of NOAA, including the USCRTF, Fishery Management Councils, etc.

**Notes:**
I am going to conclude by describing our process.

The plan is being developed by two of NOAA’s offices - 
The writing process involved a core group at NOAA that provided oversight, a writing group that produced multiple drafts, and peer review within and outside NOAA by scientists, managers, nongovernmental agencies, and various stakeholder groups.  
Review is a critical step in the development of this plan – The plan will go out for an extensive review by experts and partners within and outside of NOAA.  This will cumulate with publication of the draft plan in the Federal Register Notice and a final opportunity for public comment.  

As NOAA acknowledges the value of adaptive management practices, so too does this plan acknowledge that flexibility to respond to new information is paramount.
Measuring performance is also critical and the NOAA review process includes new approaches that both require and define outcome measures and indicators.

## Questions?

**Questions?**

## NOAA CORAL REEF ECOSYSTEMS RESEARCH PLAN

**Draft**
** ****Research Plan**
** ****Outline**

*Comments Due Solicited From:*
*Steering Group*

**Draft**
** ****Research Plan**
**(version 1)**
- Drafted by
- Writing Team

**Draft**
** ****Research Plan**
** ****(version 2)**
- Drafted by
- Writing Team
- Steering Group

**Draft**
** ****Research Plan**
** ****(version 3)**
- Drafted by
- Writing Team
- Steering Group

**Federal Register**
**Notice**
- Requesting
- Comments
- on Draft Plan
- (version 3)

-  **Final Draft**
**Research Plan**
- Presented to
- NEP
- Comments from:
- NEP

*Steering Group selects Review Group A and B*

*Comments Due Solicited From: *
*Steering Group*
*Review Group A*

*Comments Due Solicited From: *
*Steering Group*
*Review Group A*
*Review Group B*

*Comments Due*
*From:*
*Public*

-  **Final**
**Research **
**Plan**

-  **Research **
**Plan**
**Planning**
**Meeting**

**May**
** ****5**

**May**
**28**

**June**
**11**

**October**
** ****20**

**Sept.**
** ****7**

**Sept.**
** ****29**

**Oct.**
**29**

**Nov.**
** ****28**

**NOAA CORAL REEF ECOSYSTEMS RESEARCH PLAN**
**Draft Process Chart**

**+ 60**
**Days**

**+  14**
**Days**

**Oct.**
**10**

*USCRTF Meeting Presentation*

**Oct.**
**3-7**

**Jan.**
** ****9**

## NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystems Research Plan 

- NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystems Research Plan

- NOAA’s Legislative Mandates
- Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000
- Executive Order 13089
- Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act
- Endangered Species Act
- National Marine Sanctuaries Act
- Coastal Zone Management Act
- Government Performance and Results Act
- NOAA’s MISSION
- NOAA Strategic Plan FY2003-FY2008

**Notes:**
The Research Plan is also designed to be responsive to our Mandates and to compliment and contribute to NOAA’s Strategic Plan.   The mandates listed here all direct some aspect of NOAA’s involvement in Coral Reef Ecosystem Management.