An Appraisal of the Extent and Geomorphological Diversity of the Coral Reefs of the United Kingdom Dependent Territories

Abstract

The United Kingdom (UK) governs, through its Dependent Territories, a total coral reef area of 4,712 km2 making it, in jurisdictional terms, approximately the twelfth reef nation of the world, allowing for uncertainty in reef area estimates. Of the UK Overseas Territories, the reef nations include Anguilla, Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the British Indian Ocean Territories and the Pitcairn Islands. This national value is inferred from geomorphological inventory of the reef systems falling within these Territories, conducted using an internally consistent typology generated as part of the Millennium Coral Reef Mapping Project using Landsat 7+ ETM satellite images from the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and South Pacific regions. These Territories host the world's largest atoll, the northernmost reefs of the Atlantic and the most easterly atoll of the Indo-Pacific reef province. In terms of main morphological units, atolls, banks, barrier reefs, fringing reefs and patch reefs are represented.