ACRONYMS
AGRRA	Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment
CARICOMP	Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity Program
CITES	Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
ENSO	El Niño Southern Oscillation
GDP	Gross Domestic Product
GIS	Geographic Information System
ICM	Integrated Coastal Management
LBS	Land-Based Sources
MARPOL	International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships
MPA	Marine Protected Area
SPAW	Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (Protocol of Cartagena Convention)
SST	Sea Surface Temperature
UNESCO	United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

GLOSSARY

Anthropogenic – made by people or resulting from human activities.
Bank reef – large reef growths, generally having irregular shape, surrounded by deeper waters.
Barrier reef – a long, narrow coral reef, roughly parallel to the shore and separated from it by a lagoon of considerable depth and width. It is often interrupted by passes or channels.
Bathymetry – the measurement of ocean depth to determine the topography of the sea floor.
Biodiversity – the total diversity and variability of living things and the systems (e.g., coral reefs), of which they are part.
Coral bleaching – the process in which a coral polyp, under environmental stress, expels its symbiotic zooxanthellae from its body. The affected coral colony appears whitened.
Coral disease – any impairment of the coral’s vital functions or systems, including interruption, cessation, proliferation, or other vital function.
Eutrophication – the process by which an excess of nutrients stimulates the growth of plants, depleting the water of oxygen.
Fringing reef – a shelf reef that grows close to shore. Some develop around oceanic islands. A synonym of shore reef.
Greenhouse Gases (GHG) – atmospheric gases, primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, restricting some heat energy from escaping from the Earth’s atmosphere directly back into space.
Larvae – juvenile stage of an animal’s life cycle.
Passenger bed-days – a common measurement of occupancy used by the cruise line industry. “Bed days” are calculated by multiplying the number of beds occupied by the number of days they are occupied.
Pathogen – an organism that causes a disease within another organism.
Photosynthesis – process by which plants manufacture their own energy from the chemical reaction of carbon dioxide and water in the presence of sunlight and chlorophyll. Oxygen is a photochemical byproduct of photosynthesis.
Riparian – on a river bank.
Substrate – the material making up the base upon which an organism lives or to which it is attached.
Upwelling – a process in which warm surface water is drawn away from a shore by offshore currents (driven by wind for example), which is replaced by cold, often nutrient-rich water brought up from deeper regions to the surface.
Zooxanthellae – symbiotic single-celled plants living within reef-building corals. They provide food through photosynthesis, which are used as one source of energy for the coral polyps. They also provide coloration for the corals (see coral bleaching).