Grantee Research Project Results
2001 Progress Report: Integrating Coral Reef Ecosystem Integrity and Restoration Options with Watershed-based activities in the Tropical Pacific Islands and the Societal Costs of Poor Land-use Practices
EPA Grant Number: R828008Title: Integrating Coral Reef Ecosystem Integrity and Restoration Options with Watershed-based activities in the Tropical Pacific Islands and the Societal Costs of Poor Land-use Practices
Investigators: Richmond, Robert H. , Wolanski, Eric , Hamnett, Michael
Current Investigators: Richmond, Robert H. , Hamnett, Michael , Wolanski, Eric
Institution: University of Guam , Australian Institute of Marine Sciences , University of Hawaii at Manoa
Current Institution: University of Guam , University of Hawaii at Honolulu , Australian Institute of Marine Sciences
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: (Extended to July 31, 2004)
Project Period Covered by this Report: January 1, 2001 through December 31, 2002
Project Amount: $795,249
RFA: Water and Watersheds (1999) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Watersheds , Water
Objective:
The objectives of the research project are to:
· Characterize watershed discharges affecting coastal reefs chemically, temporally, and spatially;
· Determine the classes and concentrations of coastal pollutants greatest concern to coral reef sustainability, and provide quantitative data for revising local and regional water quality standards.
· Develop techniques that can identify sublethal stress in corals, before outright mortality occurs.
· Determine if coral reef recovery and restoration activities are practical following both anthropogenic and natural disturbances.
· Quantify the cultural and economic impacts of land-based developments that affect coastal resources, and incorporate this information into the decision making process.
· Develop educational materials for a variety of users and stakeholders.
· Develop a set of recommendations to prevent damage to coral reef ecosystems, and when such occurs, mitigation measures that may be undertaken.
Progress Summary:
Our objectives are being met by addressing the following questions:
· What is being discharged onto reefs from within selected watersheds?
· How effective are present mitigation measures in controlling watershed discharges, and how can these be improved to provide measurable results?
· Of the five chemically mediated steps essential for successful coral reproduction and recruitment, which are most sensitive to diminished water quality and what are the threshold levels?
· When land-based development occurs, what are the societal costs when coastal resources are affected? What are the parameters that need to be considered when attempting to balance economic development and cultural preservation on small islands?;
· Are coral reef restoration activities practical, and if so, under what circumstances?; and
· How can data from this and other studies be presented to stakeholders, traditional and elected leaders to allow for effective environmental policy development and implementation?
The approach includes performing ecological studies on coral reefs and laboratory-based bioassays, quantifying levels where sedimentation and selected classes of pollutants become problematic, studying coastal water characteristics of flow, residence time and spatial extent of watershed discharge, quantifying the societal costs to island communities resulting from watershed and related reef degradation, and testing reef restoration techniques coupled with land-based remediation.
Biological Research. Coral fertilization and recruitment bioassays were performed during the summer spawning event. Copper was found to inhibit fertilization, embryological development, and larval recruitment at levels of 100 ppb and below. The experiments revealed the importance of extending endpoints in fertilization bioassays to follow development, survivorship, and recruitment of fertilized eggs. LC50's give an underestimate of overall effects when compared to bioassays that extend across multiple life-history stages. Watershed discharge effects, including impacts of reduced coastal salinity and increased substratum cover by algae, were also documented. Techniques for recruitment bioassays using previously identified metamorphic inducers were refined and are being tested for precision. Coral cultivation techniques were further improved and applied to producing additional colonies for bioassays and transplantation/reseeding trials.
Benthic surveys were performed in both bays under study, and plans were made to examine reproductive development and fecundity within affected and non-affected coral populations.
Physical Oceanography. Field experiments were carried out in Fouha Bay, Guam (no mangroves) and in Ngerikill Bay, Palau, a mangrove-mediated area. In both bays, five oceanographic moorings were deployed at sites along a transect from inshore (near the river mouth) to offshore for two weeks in July-August 2001 (Guam) and March - April 2002 in Palau. Salinity, temperature, and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) were measured using self-logging Analite nephelometers, DataFlow salinometers and a YSI self-logging CTD-cum nephelometer. The salinometers and nephelometers were deployed at nominal depths from 1 meter to 3 meters. The vertical profiles of horizontal currents were measured using a bottom-mounted Workhorse Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler.
Samples for microscopic observations of suspended matter were obtained using the modified technique of Ayukai and Wolanski (1997). The sample was immediately examined under an Olympus inverted microscope with a Sony CCD video camera. The images were captured on an IBM-compatible PC with an interface video card. Riverine water in flood was also examined using this method. This microscope and image capture facility was also used in a laboratory experiment to determine the speed of flocculation. Turbid freshwater sampled during a local flood of the La Sa Fua River was diluted with unfiltered reef seawater to reach a salinity of 17, and the size of the suspended matter was monitored at 5 minute intervals over 1 hour.
The data demonstrated that during calm weather, Fouha Bay waters were vertically well-mixed in salinity and SSC, the surface river plume was only 0.5 m thick and the minimum salinity about 34 o/oo. SSC values peaked at 4 mg L-1 in the river plume near the surface and near the bottom, the mid-waters SSC were less than 2 mg L-1.
Social Sciences. Meetings were held with stakeholders from both watersheds. The Guam portion of the study of Fouha Bay was performed with the support and collaboration of the Mayor of the Village of Umatac, Mr. Tony Quinata, and his municipal planning council. The mayor provided logistical support for land access to the bay via private property as well as space within his office for rapid sample analyses for the sediment flocculation study. Following the data collection, an evening presentation was made to the Mayor, the municipal planning council, and interested villagers on the results.
Meetings were also held with the community surrounding the Ngerikill estuary, that included traditional leaders and local fishermen. We received the "blessing" of the community to pursue the research (a necessary element in Palau) and hired a local fisherman to help look after the deployed equipment. This individual also served a critical role as a liaison with the community.
Integration of Project Elements. Coordination among the three project investigators has been going well. Subcontracts were completed with the two partnering institutions and we purchased most of the necessary equipment. A work plan was developed with the Palau Conservation Society to develop educational materials on watershed characteristics and appropriate land-use practices.
Educational Element. The program received a big boost as the publisher of the regional newspaper, the Pacific Daily News, agreed to take on coral reef health and integrated watershed management as a special project for nine months. A full page has been devoted to these environmental issues every Monday, commencing March 2002, with additional activities scheduled bi-monthly. The articles can be viewed on the following website: http://www.guampdn.com/guampublishing/manlandsea/index.htm.
Initial Conclusions. Fouha Bay on southern Guam is exposed to open ocean swells which are capable of flushing accumulated sediment approximately four times per year. Unfortunately, estimates of sediment loads coming in from the watershed suggest the Bay bottom is covered nearly eight times per year. Resuspension of sediment during periods of southern wave swell was found to be a substantial problem in the bay, killing additional corals and preventing larval recruitment. Overfishing of herbivorous fishes has added to the problem due to the overgrowth of sediment-covered substrata with fleshy algae. Recovery of the bay will require a combined reduction in sediment input as well as establishment of a moratorium on catching herbivorous fishes.
Ngerikill Bay in Palau has a fringing mangrove buffer that reduces sediment reaching the coral zone by 15 percent to 30 percent. However, the bay is protected from oceanic swells, and hence, once sediment reaches the central portion of the bay, its retained with only minor levels of flushing due to storms.
Future Activities:
In the coming year, we plan to: (1) begin the assessment of societal costs associated with poor land-use practices; (2) initiate work on the educational materials; (3) continue characterization of coastal water quality during the dry season, and prepare for sampling during the onset of the rainy season; (4) perform the biological assessments of the bays under study; (6) continue experiments on the application of biomarkers in corals; and (7) organize the stakeholder participation element.
Journal Articles on this Report : 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 65 publications | 17 publications in selected types | All 11 journal articles |
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Type | Citation | ||
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McKenna SA, Richmond RH, Roos G. Assessing the effects of sewage on coral reefs: developing techniques to detect stress before coral mortality. Bulletin of Marine Science 2001;69(2):517-523. |
R828008 (2001) R828008 (Final) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
watersheds, ecological effects, sedimentation, erosion, sensitive populations, cumulative effects, ecosystem, indicators, restoration, decisionmaking, community-based, cost benefit, conservation, Pacific Islands, Region IX., RFA, Scientific Discipline, Geographic Area, Water, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Ecology, Water & Watershed, Environmental Chemistry, Ecosystem/Assessment/Indicators, Ecosystem Protection, Chemistry, Ecological Effects - Environmental Exposure & Risk, Wet Weather Flows, Ecological Risk Assessment, International, Watersheds, coastal ecosystem, coral reef ecosystem, anthropogenic processes, water resources, aquatic ecosystem, anthropogenic stress, coral reefs, coastal watershed, valuation of watersheds, human activities, watershed, runoff, sediment, coral reef ecosystem restoration, coastal environments, socioeconomics, aquatic degradation, hydrology, Tropical Pacific Islands, societal costs, restoration, aquatic ecosystems, coral reef ecosystem integrity, human values, non-point sources, water quality, flow monitor, ecological indicators, Micronesia, ecology assessment models, outreach and education, ecological integrity, land use, restoration planning, watershed restorationRelevant Websites:
http://www.guam.net/pub/live_spawn/ Exit
http://www.guampdn.com/guampublishing/manlandsea/index.htm Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.