The ecologic, social, and economic importance of coral reefs in French Polynesia prompts their management and conservation through customary and scientific management practices. Both strategies require monitoring of the natural status of the region’s coral reefs with a combined ecologic-ethnographic means over space and time components. However, there is a disparity in assessments of benthic status. Acute distribution events and subsequent possible recovery of coral reefs is not fully documented in the region, nor is community taxonomic change to such events. Therefore, this study seeks to categorize the status of French Polynesian coral reefs in multiple archipelagos across spatial and temporal components in respect to anthropogenic pressures of each surveyed site. More generally, this study characterizes coral reefs of French Polynesia though the reef benthic abundance across multiple archipelagos and years. The surveys show that hard coral taxonomic composition is a major driver in coral reef characterization and differs across all surveyed sites. This study suggests that coral reef communities in the region are susceptible to reduced recovery elasticity due to anthropogenic influences. A continuation of surveys is required to assess long-term spatial and temporal changes in benthic composition and to determine the direction of change occurring at each site.
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