Determining Watershed Management Efficacy in West Maui: Belt transect surveys of coral demography (adult and juvenile corals) from 2014 to 2015

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 coral demographic metrics (described here) along with benthic cover 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 belt transect surveys of coral demography (adult and juvenile corals) by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) according to protocols established by the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). In 2014 data were collected at the Mahinahina, Honokowai, and Wahikuli watersheds; in 2015 data were collected at the Kahana, Honokeana, Honokohua, and Honolua watersheds. These data include:

1) an assessment of coral colony density and size-class distribution for the selected monitoring sites;

2) an assessment of coral recruitment at the monitoring sites; and

3) an evaluation of coral colony mortality and evidence of sediment stress.

Data is available for surveys conducted in 2014 and 2015. These data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive, accession #0137092.

Additionally, line-point intercept and photoquadrat surveys of the benthos 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.

These data are part of a NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) funded project to support implementation of the Wahikuli-Honokowai Watershed Management Plan for West Maui, Hawaii. Through this project, long-term coral reef monitoring was established at three stream mouths to assess the efficacy of watershed management activities intended to reduce land-based sources of pollution at the West Maui U.S. Coral Reef Task Force (USCRTF) watershed priority site (Wahikuli-Honokowai). This work complements project specific watershed monitoring, as well as long-term coral reef monitoring conducted in the Kahekili Herbivore Fishery Management Area by the Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) and the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) taking place along the coast between the stream mouths. The project methodology was developed in partnership with the Hawaii DAR, West Maui Watershed Coordinator, U.S. Geological Survey, University of Hawaii, and the USCRTF watershed initiative.

Raw data include individual colony records with the corresponding physical data which reflect the description of the site. An individual colony record for adult corals includes colony species/genus identification, morphology, maximum diameter (centimeter), percent old dead, percent recent dead, cause of recent dead general category, cause of recent dead specific category, condition, extent and severity. Juvenile coral colony records include colony species/genus identification, morphology, maximum diameter (centimeter) and perpendicular diameter (centimeter). The physical record for juvenile and adult corals includes the following: region, island, site, date (day, month, year), latitude (decimal degrees), longitude (decimal degrees), transect, segment, segment length, segment width, minimum depth (feet), and maximum depth.

While every effort has been made to ensure that these data are accurate and reliable within the limits of the current state of the art, NOAA cannot assume liability for any damages caused by errors or omissions in the data, nor as a result of the failure of the data to function on a particular system. NOAA makes no warranty, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty.

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Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) Data Sharing Recommendations, version 9.0 updated August 12, 2015:

CREP welcomes the opportunity to collaborate on research issues contributing to the scientific basis for better management of marine ecosystems. CREP has a very diverse set of field activities that generates large volumes of data using an array of data collection protocols.

The following recommendations are for your consideration as you use this data:

1) Data analyses should take all field exigencies into account. The most effective way to do this would be active collaboration with CREP principal investigators.

2) In all presentations, product releases, or publications using data generated by CREP, proper acknowledgement of both CREP and the individuals responsible for data collection is expected. Citing the DOI (if available) is preferred, a non-DOI example is listed below.

3) If you collect or generate data for the same study areas, CREP requests that you share relevant information on complimentary data collections.

4) Those receiving data are strongly urged to inform the CREP Data Management Team of any errors and discrepancies that are discovered during the course of using these data. They are further urged to bring to the attention of the Team all problems and difficulties encountered in using these data. This information is necessary in order to improve the collections and to facilitate more efficient and economical data processing and retrieval. The users are asked to supply copies of any missing data that may be located, and to provide information as to significant subsets and special aggregations of data that are developed in using the material provided.

Example citation:

"This publication makes use of data products provided by the Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with funding support from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP). The analysis and interpretations presented here are solely that of the current authors”

Data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive, accession #0137092.

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Please cite NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) when using the data.

Example

Cite as: Vargas-Angel, B; Coral Reef Ecosystem Program; Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (2015). Determining Watershed Management Efficacy in West Maui: Belt transect surveys of coral demography (adult and juvenile corals) from 2014 to 2015 (NCEI Accession #0137092). NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Unpublished Dataset. [access date]

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PIFSC Oracle database views: v0_coral_obs_e and v0_coral_obs_f.

Selection criteria: island = 'Maui' and obs_year in (2014, 2015)

Observations were made by experienced benthic survey personnel. The accuracy of species and genus level identification was high. Handheld GPS units were used to mark site locations.

While colony lengths are derived from physical measurements, recent and old mortality are visual estimates; surveyors calibrate to reduce inter-observer bias

Survey transects were appropriately marked to allow direct, site-level temporal comparisons.

Complete. All planned demographic data were collected.

Only forereef, hard bottom habitats were surveyed.

Survey methods were consistent across all sites.

The quality control occurred at two major stages - 1) data entry and 2) data management. Data entry quality control included both review and manual error correction steps. Data management quality control included several standard error queries followed by correction prior to ingestion into Oracle database.

NOAA IRC and NOAA Fisheries ITS resources and assets.

The data described here were collected via belt transect surveys of coral demography (adult and juvenile corals) by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) following a slightly modified protocol to that established by the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP).