Institution during data collection: Kalakaua Marine Educational Center University of Hawaii at Hilo Hilo, Hawaii
1. Puako 19 58N 155 51W
Puako is located on the Kohala coast of the island of Hawai'i. Considered by many people to be one of the most spectacular reefs in the state, Puako is also one of the most well developed fringing reefs on the island. Located north of the Mauna Lani hotel complex and south of Hapuna Beach, the reef spans several kilometers of low lying areas lightly developed by residential housing. The area is largely protected by open ocean swells except large winter swells and Kona storms.
Corals are sparsely abundant on the reef flat, which extends from the shore to about 200 meters offshore. The reef flat is an area of relatively high wave energy characterized by highly variable coral cover, primarily lobe coral (Porites lobata) and cauliflower coral (Pocillopora meadrina). Mobile invertebrates are conspicuous, especially collector urchins (Tripneustes gratilla), rock boring urchins (Echinometra mathaea), and black sea cucumbers (Holothuria atra). Fishes reach there highest diversity here dominated by plant-grazing surgeon fishes such as yellow tangs (Zebrasoma flavescens), achilles tangs (Acanthurus achilles), convict tangs (Acanthurus triostegus), and moorish idols (Zanclus cornutus). Spotted puffers (Arothron meleagris) and lei triggersfish (Sufflamen bursa) are also common along with saddle wrasses (Thalassoma duperrey).
Following the reef flat is a vertical drop-off of 3-6 meters which leads to the main Puako reef. This is area of caves and crevices filled with encrusting corals and sponges. Tube corals (Tubastraea coccinea), best observed at night, cover many of the walls creating orange carpets. Other corals, such as species of the genus Leptoseris and Pavona, are also common. Black sea urchins, mainly Echinothrix diadema and E. calamaris, are common in holes on the walls. Green sea turtles (Chelonia midas) are commonly found sleeping in caves. This threatened species feeds on seaweeds growing on the vertical cliffs and reef flat, especially members of the red seaweed genus Pterocladia. Turtles are also commonly seen sleeping in depressions on the main reef and gracefully swimming over the bottom. Schools of small fish may occasionally be seen feeding off the seaweeds and encrusting invertebrates on the backs of green sea turtles.
"EAST" refers to the eastmost entrance to the Puako area. Surveys are straight out from this entrance. "West" refers to the westmost entrance area.
2. Mahukona: 20 10N 155 53W
Mahukona is a pristine reef with a high coral cover bench and a gentle reef slope. The small exposed bay is located on the North Kohala coast of the island of Hawai'i about 10 miles north of Kawaihae. Once the main port for shipping of Kohala Sugar, the area now is a diving site with an area for launching small boats.The area is exposed to heavy winter swells, so if the surf is up it is often not accessible. As you move offshore away from the wreck of the SS Kauai you can skirt the edge of the reef which offers stunning contrasts between white coral sand and large, colorful coral colonies. Lizardfish (Synodus spp.) are common on the sand, often sitting in pairs, waiting for small fish to cruise by. Sea cucumbers are also abundant in these areas. During the winter these sandy areas can be quite murky when runoff from the small stream near the harbor entrance flows into the bay. On the reef invertebrates are abundant and this is one of the few areas that consistently has a few Crown-of-Thorn Seastars (Acanthaster planci).
"INNER" refers to the shallowest transect and "OUTER" refers to the deepest dive. Due to variable surge levels during different dive days, the exact same transect line is not repeated since it could have been too dangerous to undertake.
Resource Description: NODC Accession number 0000264
Methods employed to survey fishes include fish strip transects and rapid visual transects.
Excerpts from Hallacher and Tissot, 1999: SURVEYING FISHES In the field QUEST students practice two fish surveying methods: strip transect (SST) and rapid visual transect (RVT). They are relatively unbiased.
The Strip Transect is similar to the "Brock" method. It consists of a fixed width strip transect. The method is used to estimate the densities of fishes, because it not provides information on species present, but also on their abundance per unit of survey area. A transect line is deployed on the bottom, most often parallel to shore along a specific depth contour. Divers wait for fishes distrurbed by the deployment process to resume normal activity patterns, and then proceed down the transect line, one on each side, recording all fishes seen in the water column an on the bottom on their side of the transect line. Data are recorded onto a pre-prepared data sheet attached to an underwater slate. Each diver searches a lane approximately 3 meters wide on each side of the transect line extending 50 m in length. The transect size that is finally decided upon depends upon the community being sampled, although the length should allow transects to be searched completely within the boundaries of a particular habitat type (i.e. lagoon, reef flat, reef slope). This visual transect method has several potential sources of error. The most common is the underestimation of the individuals present (Brock 1982). Also cryptic or rare species will often be missed. Shoaling fishes are especially likely to be underestimated. Mobile species maybe overestimated if they are counted several times.
Rapid Visual Transect: Jones and Thompson (1978) developed this technique for estimating the relative abundance of fishes. It is based on the assumption that the probability of encountering a species increases with the abundance. It assumes the more common species will be the first ones seen. It is based on the inverse relationship between abundance and the average time to first encounter. The observer swims freely within the target habitat for a specified period of time (50 minutes). The survey period is divided into intervals (10 min each). Each species sighted is recorded only once and assigned to the time interval in which it was first seen. Species are assigned scores based on the interval in which they were seen:
Time Interval Score 0-10 min 1 5 10-20 min 2 4 20-30 min 3 3 30-40 min 4 2 40-50 min 5 1
The species with the highest score is the most abundant, while the species with the lowest score is the rarest. Compared to SST, RVT overemphasizes the importance of widespread, though rarer species, while under-estimating patchy but abundat fishes. On coral reefs where ichthyofauna would best be characterized as having a large number of relatively rare species, this method is likely to overestimate the relative abundance of many species.
Excerpts from Hallacher and Tissot, 1999: SURVEYING ATTACHED EPIFAUNA AND EPIFLORA Four methods of surveying attached organisms like corals and algae are used by QUEST. Quadrats are square and range in area from 0.25 to 1.0 meters**2. They are made of PVC pipe, which is weighted with lead and drilled to permit water to fill the piping upon submersion. Photoquadrats are taen with Nikonos series cameras montuned on a rigid framework. Videoquadrats are recorded with Hi-8 video cameras. The quadrats for all of the above are placed at ten random number locations along the 50 m transect.
QUADRAT INTERSECT METHOD
This method utiliezes a quadrat that is partitioned by a series of lines which intersect at regular intervals. After the quadrat has been placed on the bottom, organisms or substrate type located under each intersection are recorded. QUEST quadrats are "double-strung", so that one complete set of lines lies about 1" above an identical set. The observer must line up the upper and lower points of intersection before recording what lies under them. This eliminates parallax based on the observer's position. This method provides an estimate of the abundance of epibenthic organisms like corals and algae. The principla advantage is that each quadrat can be searched quickly, with many replicated quatdrats being searched during a dive. The disadvantage is that uncommon or rare species seldom fall under intersecting points and are therefore not recorded.
PERCENT COVER ESTIMATES
This requires the observer to estimate the percentage of the quadrat area filled by each taxon or substrate type. Accuracy is enhanced when the quadrats are broken into subsections. A typical 0.25 m**2 quadrat is divided into 16 subunits. Rare species are less overlooked in this way in comparison with the point-intersect method. The disadvantage is that it is time-intensive, limiting the number of quadrats. Observer bias can also be very high, for instance, those focusing on algae in a given area will not more algae, while those focusing on coral, but looking at the same quadrat would see more coral.
PHOTOQUADRATS
At each random location along the transect line, a color foto is taken. Slides are analyzed using "point-intersect" at randomly generated points.
VIDEOQUADRATS
A quadrat is placed on the bottom and the fauna within its boundary are videotaped. Analysis is similar to photoquadrat method.
Excerpts from Hallacher and Tissot, 1999: SURVEYING SOLITARY MACROINVERTEBRATES
QUADRAT SEARCH: Quadrats are placed at random locations along the transect line and searched for macroinvertebrates. Quadrat size is 1 m**2. Numerous replicate suadrats can be used to calculate how sample organisms are distributed in space, specifically whtether they are randomly distributed, aggregated, or uniformly spaced. The method tends to overlook small, inconspicuous, or rare species.
NEAREST NEIGHBOR MEASUREMENTS: For invertebrates that are widely spaced over the reef, like some urchin species, any one of several nearest neighbor Distance methods can be used to estimate density. The random point to nearest method is used. A transect line is deployed and the diver proceeds down the line to the first of a series of locations selected by randomly generated numbers. The observer then measures the distance from the transect line location to the nearest target organism (Tripneustes gratilla-- urchin). From the measurements, densities are calculated. Patterns of spacing between organisms can be determined. This method is conducted without a quadrat. It is a good estimate of absolute density for rare, or widely dispersed organisms. The density estimates are sensitive to the spatial distribution pattern of the organisms. The distance method assumes a random spatial pattern.
1) Table: Surveys Field Description (as necessary) ------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- Dive* Numerical assignment of each unique dive Population Name of Dive site (Puako or Mahukona) Location Puako: East or West (east or west entrance to Puako) Mahukona: Inner or Outer (shallow or deeper transect) Year Date Depth (ft) Team Comments
2) Table: Coral Data Field Description (as necessary) ------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- Dive* Code* defined in table=Substrate codes Quadrat Grid No Cover per cent
3) Table: Substrate codes Field Description (as necessary) ------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- Code* refers to "Code" in table=Coral Data Species Sort general type Category substrate or non-substrate, Coral Code2 secondary code scheme used by QUEST
4) Table: Fish Data Field Description (as necessary) ------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- Dive* Code* defined in table=Fish Names Number count Size estimate to centimeter Side side of strip transect Zone section along transect
5) Table: Fish Names Field Description (as necessary) ------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- Code* refers to "Code" in table=Fish Data Species Name Hawaiian Name Common Name Family Number* see table=Fish Families
6) Table: Fish Families Field Description (as necessary) ------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- Family Number* see table=Fish Names Family Phylogenetic sort Name
7) Table: PCA Field Description (as necessary) ------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- Code* refers to "Code" in table=Fish Data SumofNumber cumulative number
8) Table: Invertebrate Data Field Description (as necessary) ------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- Dive* Code* defined in table=Invertebrate Names Quadrat Count Comments
9) Table: Invertebrate Names Field Description (as necessary) ------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- Code* refers to "Code" in table=Invertebrate Data Species Name Common Name Hawaiian Name
10) Table: Invertebrate Phyla Field Description (as necessary) ------------------ --------------------------------------------------------- Phylum Phylogenetic sort
QUERIES (EXTRACTIONS FROM THE MS ACESS DATABASE)
1) nodc_coral_data
Field 1: survey date, ignore the time component, ie, 0:00:00 Field 2: survey time, ignore the date component, ie, 12/30/99 Hawaiian Standard Time Field 3: Dive Field 4: Location Field 5: Population (Location) Field 6: Depth (ft) Field 7: Team Field 8: Survey comments Field 9: Quadrat Field 10: Grid No. Field 11: Coral Comments Field 12: Cover (%) Field 13: Code (see subtrate table for definition)
2) nodc_fish_data Field 1: survey date, ignore the time component, ie, 0:00:00 Field 2: survey time, ignore the date component, ie, 12/30/99 Hawaiian Standard Time Field 3: Dive Field 4: Location Field 5: Population (Location) Field 6: Depth (ft) Field 7: Team Field 8: Survey comments Field 9: Code (see Fish Names for definition) Field 10: Number Field 11: Size Field 12: Side Field 13: Zone
3) nodc_invert_data Field 1: survey date, ignore the time component, ie, 0:00:00 Field 2: survey time, ignore the date component, ie, 12/30/99 Hawaiian Standard Time Field 3: Dive Field 4: Location Field 5: Population (Location) Field 6: Depth (ft) Field 7: Team Field 8: Survey comments Field 9: Quadrat Field 10: Code (see Invertebrate Names for definition) Field 11: Count Filed 12: Invertebrate Comments
QUERIES (EXTRACTIONS FROM THE MS ACESS DATABASE)
1) nodc_coral_data
Field 1: survey date, ignore the time component, ie, 0:00:00 Field 2: survey time, ignore the date component, ie, 12/30/99 Hawaiian Standard Time Field 3: Dive Field 4: Location Field 5: Population (Location) Field 6: Depth (ft) Field 7: Team Field 8: Survey comments Field 9: Quadrat Field 10: Grid No. Field 11: Coral Comments Field 12: Cover (%) Field 13: Code (see subtrate table for definition)
2) nodc_fish_data Field 1: survey date, ignore the time component, ie, 0:00:00 Field 2: survey time, ignore the date component, ie, 12/30/99 Hawaiian Standard Time Field 3: Dive Field 4: Location Field 5: Population (Location) Field 6: Depth (ft) Field 7: Team Field 8: Survey comments Field 9: Code (see Fish Names for definition) Field 10: Number Field 11: Size Field 12: Side Field 13: Zone
3) nodc_invert_data Field 1: survey date, ignore the time component, ie, 0:00:00 Field 2: survey time, ignore the date component, ie, 12/30/99 Hawaiian Standard Time Field 3: Dive Field 4: Location Field 5: Population (Location) Field 6: Depth (ft) Field 7: Team Field 8: Survey comments Field 9: Quadrat Field 10: Code (see Invertebrate Names for definition) Field 11: Count Filed 12: Invertebrate Comments