Calender, Tova; Bernardo Vargas-Angel; Paulo Maurin

Quantifying condition of coral reef communities in the Kahana and Honokahua Priority Watersheds, West Maui Project Information

2018

US DOC; NOAA; National Ocean Service, Office for Coastal Management US DOC; NOAA; National Marine fisheries Service, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center

Tech Report

"The Hawaii Coral Reef Strategy identified the coral reef ecosystem along the West Maui watersheds (Ka'anapali to Honolua) as a State Priority Management Area. Coral reefs in the region are severely affected by sedimentation and siltation stress, due to excessive terrigenous runoff from prolonged and deficient land-use practices. This project will address continue data collection in the W Maui area that have been the center of CRCP-supported monitoring efforts. Last years project FY16 Quantifying condition of coral reef communities in the Kahana and Honokahua Priority Watersheds, West Maui (ID:31141) succeeded in providing reef conditions in two of the 5 watersheds in W Maui, and overall coral reef fish and benthic assemblages in the W Maui priority area. Previously, CRCP funded the FY14 project Determining the efficacy of watershed management activities in the Wahikuli and Honokowai watersheds, West Maui (ID 1077) which provided sediment loading dynamics for two of the five watersheds. Thus, there is a baseline for corals, fish, and benthic habitat already established, and partial sediment data for the two southern watersheds, but the area is missing critical sediment data for three of the five watersheds. This project will address this data gap in the missing northern three watersheds, plus provide additional data in the two southern watersheds, filling in the picture of sediment loading. By the end of this project, we will have a fuller understanding of coral reef communities and benthic assemblages, plus sediment loading, across the entire priority area. This project seeks funds to complement the ongoing long-term benthic monitoring by expanding efforts to the stream mouths and overlaying it with coral community and demographic metrics, and sediment flux and turbidity data that can be used to track and evaluate the efficacy of implemented LBSP management practices. Sediment traps and sediment pods provided initial information on sediment loads, sediment accumulation rates, and sediment composition, and the camera imagery will allow for visual assessment of stream-sediment pollution plumes. "

FY2017; CRCP Project ID: 31141; Project Title: Quantifying condition of coral reef communities in the Kahana and Honokahua Priority Watersheds, West Maui; Principal Investigator: Paulo Maurin