Determining Watershed Management Efficacy in West Maui: line-point-intercept and photo quadrat surveys of benthic communities for benthic cover from 2014 to 2015

Description

The focus of the Wahikuli-Honokowai Watershed Management Plan is the land use practices and alterations affected in the agricultural and urban districts that have upset the natural drainage patterns and ecohydrologic balance and services the watersheds provide. As the approach to reducing the effects of land-based sources of pollution, the Wahikuli-Honokowai Watershed Management Plan identifies nine priority projects to reduce, capture, and remediate the impacts of non-point source pollutants through the implementation of management practices in priority areas. The Watershed Management Plan also includes recommendations for strategic, long-term trend monitoring of the health of the coral reef ecosystem, which provides information that can be correlated to the implementation of solutions to reduce land-based non-point source pollutants. Kahekili Beach Park reef and the coastal areas to the north are considered high priority. Corals in this region have been severely impacted by land-based pollutants, causing coral dieback and reducing coral cover. To fill in the gap, a baseline assessment for benthic cover data (described here) along with coral demographic metrics, has been conducted at the mouths of the Mahinahina, Honokowai, and Wahikuli, Kahana, Honokeana, Honokohua, and Honolua stream drainages in West Maui, Hawaii, to track and evaluate the efficacy of implemented management practices. The installation of permanent survey transects will provide long-term time series to quantify changes in the reef benthic community. Sediment flux, and turbidity data are also collected at the Mahinahina, Honokowai, and Wahikuli, dranages (described separately). The data described here were collected via line-point-intercept (LPI) and photo quadrat surveys by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) according to established protocols. These data include: 1) an assessment of benthic cover for the selected monitoring sites; and 2) benthic photographs to serve as a permanent record of the site. Data is available for surveys conducted in 2014 and 2015. The LPI data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive, accession #0138585, and the benthic photographs are available upon request from CREP. Additionally, belt transect surveys of coral demography (adult and juvenile corals) were conducted (described separately), and turbidity sensors, sediment traps, and sediment pods were deployed by project partners to provide information on sediment loads, sediment accumulation rates, and sediment composition. As watershed management projects are implemented, changes in sediment and nutrient loading and the resulting impacts on the reefs can be monitored over time.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
0 Benthic category data from line-point-intercept surveys conducted by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program in West Maui, Hawaii from 2014 to 2015 (NOAA NCEI Accession #0138585). https://accession.nodc.noaa.gov/0138585
0 View the complete metadata record on InPort for more information about this dataset. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/27316
0 Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center homepage https://www.pifsc.noaa.gov
0 NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) Ecological Assessment of Coral project page http://www.pifsc.noaa.gov/cred/corals.php
33 Wahikuli-Honokowai Watershed Management Plan Volume 1: Watershed Characterization http://www.westmauir2r.com/uploads/7/5/7/6/7576120/whwmp-vol1watershed_characterization-jan_2013.pdf
33 Wahikuli-Honokowai Watershed Management Plan Volume1: Executive Summary http://dlnr.hawaii.gov/coralreefs/files/2013/04/Wahikuli-Honokawai-Watershed-Management-Plan-Vol1-2.pdf
33 NOAA Data Management Plan for this record on InPort. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inportserve/waf/noaa/nmfs/pifsc/dmp/pdf/27316.pdf
0 The information provided on this page seeks to define how the GCMD Keywords are structured, used and accessed. It also provides information on how users can participate in the further development of the keywords. https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/find-data/idn/gcmd-keywords
33 Wahikuli-Honokowai Watershed Management Plan Volume 2: Strategies and Implementation http://health.hawaii.gov/cwb/files/2013/05/WHWMP_Vol2_StrategiesImplementation_Dec2012.pdf
33 Wahikuli-Honokowai Watershed Management Plan Volume 2: Executive Summary http://www.westmauir2r.com/uploads/7/5/7/6/7576120/whwmp_vol_2_executive_summary.pdf

Tags

  • benthic missions
  • benthic communities
  • crep
  • coral cover
  • west maui
  • doc/noaa/nmfs/pifsc
  • united states of america
  • reef monitoring and assessment
  • corals
  • north pacific ocean
  • coral reef ecosystem division
  • pifsc
  • photograph analysis
  • in situ biological
  • maui
  • biosphere
  • survey - coral reef
  • oceans
  • maui island (20n156w0004)
  • algae
  • coral reef conservation program
  • marine invertebrates
  • 1077
  • maui island
  • survey - biological
  • calcareous macroalgae
  • noaa
  • honolua bay (20n156w0016)
  • numeric data sets
  • algal cover
  • hawaii
  • nmfs
  • baseline studies
  • macroinvertebrates
  • biology
  • quadrat monitoring
  • us doc
  • pacific islands fisheries science center
  • u.s. department of commerce
  • earth science
  • benthic biology
  • national marine fisheries service
  • coralline algae
  • reef damage assessment
  • vegetation
  • fleshy macroalgae
  • hawaiian islands
  • determining the efficacy of watershed management activities in the wahikuli and honokowai watersheds
  • crustose coralline algae
  • honokowai (20n156w0012)
  • marine biology
  • coral communities
  • cred
  • pollution
  • encrusting macroalgae
  • benthos analysis
  • survey - swimmer/diver
  • central pacific ocean
  • transect monitoring
  • coral reef ecology
  • ocean basin
  • habitat - benthic
  • wahikuli (21n156w0005)
  • coral
  • kahana (21n157w0028)
  • coastal processes
  • linear transect (point)
  • zoology
  • coral reefs
  • pacific ocean
  • country/territory
  • turf algae
  • coral reef ecosystem program

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