Short description:

Developed from satellite data only recently available, A Global Atlas of Atolls presents high-quality details of the the 473 atolls across the globe, characterizing details of the atoll rim, the lagoon and their coral reef communities in unprecedented detail.

Long description:

Scattered like dots rising from the deep across vast expanses of the world?s tropical and subtropical oceans, atolls with their turquoise lagoons and reefs teeming with colorful marine life have captured the public imagination. They have also been the homeland of millions of people for millennia as various groups of migrants spread across the far reaches if the Pacific, Indian and Western Atlantic regions. Developed from recently available satellite data, A Global Atlas of Atolls presents high-quality details of 476 atolls across the globe, characterizing aspects of the atoll rim, the lagoon, and their coral reef communities in unprecedented detail. In synthesizing and enhancing understanding of these unique seascapes, this volume provides a distinct compendium of descriptions and images, as well as documentation of the environmental conditions of winds, waves, and tides and a summary of the background literature for each atoll area. There is no comparable work.

After an introduction that includes a glossary of terms, each atoll is documented in the form of an atlas written for scientists, but accessible to any diver or reader interested in these spectacular reef-island habitats. This book also describes some current challenges and perspectives on their future. It will be useful as a reference work for marine scientists, while providing a minimum of technical jargon for those who are not scientists, but who enjoy reading about exotic places with unusual attributes.

Chapter 3 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

A Global Atlas of Atolls stands out as a detailed and comprehensive resource, blending rigorous scientific research with accessible explanations and visual representations. Generally, I would recommend this book to any lay person or researcher who is interested in the distribution, formation, and historical significance of global atolls. It is rare that you read an Atlas front-to-back but, in this case, I did and enjoyed every striking image and was continuously curious about what I was going to read next.

Jonathan Jung, Climate-Geochemistry Department, Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany, in ASLO Bulletin, Nov 2024. 

Table of Contents:

Introduction. Materials and Methods. Polynesia and the Tuamotu Archipelago. The Society Islands. The Cook Islands. South Central Pacific (Swains, Rose, Beveridge). Tokelau Islands. Tuvalu. Kiribati (Line, Phoenix, Gilbert Islands). Hawaii and the Central Pacific Atolls of the USA. Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Micronesia and The Caroline Islands. Melanesia, New Guinea and the Coral Sea. The Solomon Islands. Fiji. The Coral Sea. North West Australia. Indonesia. South China and the Sulu Sea. Central Indian Ocean (Lakshadweep, Maldive and Chagos Archipelagos). Western Indian Ocean. Western Atlantic Ocean . Summary and Atolls of the 21^st century.