Over a century of study in American Samoa has built a foundation of coral reef ecology within the region. However, this work has been restricted to shallow coral reefs (SCRs; <30 m) until recently, where a few studies have started describing American Samoa’s mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs). MCEs are defined as coral reef communities with zooxanthellate corals and associated biotic assemblages between 30 and 150 m depth. Mapping efforts within the territory have documented habitat characteristics for SCRs, as well as MCEs.

absolute age, alkaline earth metals, Ar/Ar, basalts, Cenozoic, Emperor Seamounts, Eocene, geochemistry, hafnium, Hawaiian Ridge, Hf-177/Hf-176, igneous, rocks, isotope, ratios, K/Ar, large igneous provinces, lava, lead, magmas, major elements, mantle, metals, Nd-144/Nd-143, neodymium, Pacific Ocean, Paleogene, Pb-206/Pb-204, Pb-207/Pb-204, Pb-208/Pb-204, petrology, radioactive isotopes, rare earths, Sr-87/Sr-86, stable isotopes, strontium, submarine volcanoes, Tertiary, trace elements, volcanic rocks, volcanism, volcanoes

Shallow coral reef and seamount-based ecosystems associated with Pacific islands and atolls host a high and abundant biodiversity, yet many of the ecosystems are threatened by a range of climatic, oceanographic, and anthropogenic stresses. In these types of environments, the morphology and composition of the seabed have been shown to be useful proxies/surrogates for the distribution and abundance of benthic organisms, as well as the other organisms and communities that depend on them.

A review of taxonomic and ecological studies for shallow and mesophotic antipatharians is presented for four regionally based case studies, three in the tropics (1) Central Indo-Pacific, plus adjacent sections of the Western Indo-Pacific, (2) Eastern Indo-Pacific (primarily Hawaiʻi), and (3) the Caribbean Sea) and one at temperate latitudes in the Mediterranean Sea and adjacent sections of the Northeast Atlantic.