Assessing the resilience of Maui's coral reefs to support reef restoration

Methods

Summary

Reef assessments will be undertaken to identify resistant corals in shallow waters (0 to 5m). The NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch data will be employed to indicate bleaching events. In such cases, field missions will be conducted after the peak of thermal stress. Bleaching surveys (WCS protocol) will be conducted to assess coral bleaching and mortality, as well as coral reef health, natural recovery processes, and bleaching resistance. Biodiversity surveys will be carried out to establish a baseline of the nearshore fish, invertebrate, and coral communities, as well as to observe changes in coral cover over time and to identify fish habitat within the sites. Impact surveys on coral community will be done to observe coral damage, negative impacts of tourism and sedimentation. Other variables include: presence of corallivores and invasive species, coral disease and Crown-Of-Thorn Starfish (COTS) outbreaks.

Challenges

Ecosystems worldwide are experiencing a triple crisis of planetary scale: climate change; biodiversity loss; and anthropogenic pollution. On the front line of this global crisis, the coral reefs could disappear within decades if proactive intervention is not done. Specifically, the coral reefs of Maui are being degraded by climate change impacts and land-based sources of pollution, including sediments, fertilizers, and wastewater. As if that was not enough, the increase of wildfires on Maui over the past decade has contributed to soil erosion and thus an increase in sedimentation rates on nearshore reef ecosystems leading to rapid declines in coral reef health. To design local conservation solutions and make progress in coral reef management, mapping the changes happening on degraded reefs is crucial for biodiversity governance. Yet to ensure the effective conservation and sustainable management of reef resources, we need to fully understand the current state of Maui's reefs. Particularly with respect of global and local anthropogenic stressors as a cause of coral reef degradation.

Pre Analysis Plan

Activities proposed: A) The first priority will be a proper baseline assessment of the sites to establish what remains and what has been lost, both coral cover and coral species diversity. Which will include the state prior to degradation, potential for recovery, and resilience in the face of disturbance and stress B) Every tagged resilient coral colony will be a native Hawaiian coral species and a georeferenced photo of each tagged colony as a whole will be generated with a scale bar; C) Extensive reef surveys will be undertaken to collect data on coral reef health, bleaching resistance, reef status, threats and trends; and D) Temperature loggers will be deployed to monitor water temperature and give fine-scale results to identify hot/shallow areas.