Scripps expedition provides new baseline for coral reef conservation

• “Microbial Ecology of Four Coral Atolls in the Northern Line Islands” is authored by: Dinsdale, Olga Pantos, Steven Smriga, Robert Edwards, Florent Angly, Linda Wegley, Mark Hatay, Dana Hall, Elysa Brown, Matthew Haynes, Lutz Krause, Sala, Sandin, Rebecca Vega Thurber, Bette Willis, Farooq Azam, Knowlton and Rohwer. (available at: http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0001584.)

The Line Islands research was supported by: the National Geographic Society; Moore Family Foundation; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; Fairweather Foundation; Marine Managed Areas Program - Conservation International; and several private donors. Logistical support was provided by: the US Fish and Wildlife Service (on the Kingman and Palmyra National Wildlife Refuges), the Kiribati Ministry of the Environment (on Christmas and Fanning), the Palmyra Atoll Research Consortium and the Nature Conservancy.

To access Scripps explorations feature stories about the Line Islands Expedition, including images, video and podcasts (English and Spanish) see:

• Paradise Redefined: Part I http://explorations.ucsd.edu/Features/Paradise_pt1/

• Paradise Redefined: Part II http://explorations.ucsd.edu/Features/Paradise_pt2

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Scripps Institution of Oceanography: scripps.ucsd.edu

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Scripps Institution of Oceanography, at UC San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest and most important centers for global science research and graduate training in the world. The National Research Council has ranked Scripps first in faculty quality among oceanography programs nationwide. Now in its second century of discovery, the scientific scope of the institution has grown to include biological, physical, chemical, geological, geophysical and atmospheric studies of the earth as a system. Hundreds of research programs covering a wide range of scientific areas are under way today in 65 countries. The institution has a staff of about 1,300, and annual expenditures of approximately $155 million from federal, state and private sources. Scripps operates one of the largest U.S. academic fleets with four oceanographic research ships and one research platform for worldwide exploration.