Status and recent trends in coral reefs of the Philippines

Concern about the condition of Philippine coral reefs has prompted a recent reassessment of the status of the nation's reefs, the results of which are reported here. This paper presents the largest updated dataset on Philippine coral cover and generic diversity. The dataset was obtained from equally-sized sampling stations on fore-reef slopes of fringing reefs in six biogeographic regions using identical methods. A total of 206 stations were surveyed from 2014 to 2017, and another 101 stations were monitored from 2015 to 2018.