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Filters: Tags: {"scheme":"https://www.sciencebase.gov/vocab/category/NCCWSC/WaterCoastsandIce","name":"coral reefs"} (X) > partyWithName: Pacific Islands CSC (X)

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This Project Snapshot provides a brief overview of the project "Coral reef resilience to climate change in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands".
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Coral ecosystems of West Maui support a vibrant tourism industry and provide tangible economic benefits to the community. Hawaiian nearshore reefs generate about $800 million in annual revenue, not including the ecosystem services they provide - such as critical habitat for diverse fish species and buffering coasts from storm surges. The Hawaiian economy depends on healthy coral ecosystems, yet reefs are currently facing multiple threats, including changing climate conditions, local land-based pollution, and sediment erosion. Erosion of soils into nearshore coastal zones is a chief concern facing land managers in West Maui. Intermittent rainfall can carry sediment from sources such as dirt roads, agricultural fields,...
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ArcGIS layer package of relative classifications (low to high) for six resilience indicators and two anthropogenic stressors and a map of final relative resilience scores for 78 sites in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The six resilience indicators are: bleaching resistance, coral diversity, coral recruitment, herbivore biomass, macroalgae cover and temperature variability. The two anthropogenic stressors are fishing access and nutrients and sediments. The resilience score map compares sites across all four of the surveyed islands: Saipan, Tinian, Aguijan, and Rota.
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This project was designed to use climate models to produce projections of changes in sea temperatures and ocean chemistry for coastal marine areas in Micronesia as well as reports that describe the outlook of culturally important marine sites in Guam and CNMI. The projections and maps were expected show what the current state of climate science suggests the future holds for marine areas in Micronesia if we continue to use fossil fuels aggressively. These projections of sea conditions will become the foundation of outlook reports for Tumon Bay in Guam, Lao Lao Bay and Saipan Lagoon in Saipan, and northern Tinian Island. The selected areas are among the most important sites for recreation in Guam and CNMI and, as...
Abstract (from PLOS One): Declining natural resources have led to a cultural renaissance across the Pacific that seeks to revive customary ridge-to-reef management approaches to protect freshwater and restore abundant coral reef fisheries. Effective ridge-to-reef management requires improved understanding of land-sea linkages and decision-support tools to simultaneously evaluate the effects of terrestrial and marine drivers on coral reefs, mediated by anthropogenic activities. Although a few applications have linked the effects of land cover to coral reefs, these are too coarse in resolution to inform watershed-scale management for Pacific Islands. To address this gap, we developed a novel linked land-sea modeling...
Episodic runoff carries suspended sediment to the nearshore, where it blocks light used for photosynthesis, smothers corals, inhibits coral recruitment, and triggers increases in macroalgae. Even small rainfalls create visible plumes over a few hours. Sediment affects coastal user enjoyment by deteriorating both ecosystem quality and visibility. Sources of erosion include unimproved roads, fallow and active agricultural fields, disturbed forests, local development, and streambanks. In this project, USGS used mapping, field experiments and monitoring, and analysis of recent (July 19–20, 2014) and historic rainfall to estimate sources of land-based pollution for watersheds in West Maui, Hawaii. USGS constructed an...
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Maps of relative classifications (low to high) for six resilience indicators and two anthropogenic stressors and a map of final relative resilience scores for 78 sites in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The six resilience indicators are: bleaching resistance, coral diversity, coral recruitment, herbivore biomass, macroalgae cover and temperature variability. The two anthropogenic stressors are fishing access and nutrients and sediments. The resilience score map compares sites across all four of the surveyed islands: Saipan, Tinian, Aguijan, and Rota.
This Project Snapshot provides an overview of the project "Valuing Climate Change Impacts on Coral Reef Ecosystem Services".
Coral reefs provide numerous ecosystem goods and services critical to human well-being (e.g., protection from storms and floods, food, income, recreation, and cultural practices), but those ecosystems are under serious threat due to growing human pressures, including overfishing, land-based pollution, and global climate change. Managers facing complex problems require decision-support tools that can guide costeffective action across the entire watershed, from ridge to reef. This project built a pilot tool for coral reef management that can map, assess, and value key goods and services from the reef environment. It provides important information to managers on the areas supplying the most value to humans, as well...
Abstract (from http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjfas-2016-0200#.WhM1YdenGUk): We demonstrated a possible future wherein coral reefs shift to an algae-dominated state that retains low coral cover and a functional biomass of herbivorous fishes that sustains a reef fish fishery. We evaluate the effect of no-take marine protected areas (MPAs) and increased coastal nutrients under two Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change climate scenarios for years 2000–2100, which are implemented as coral bleaching events. Coral mortality from bleaching events drove a lagged increase in herbivorous fish populations via a shift from coral-dominated to algae-dominated habitats. Biomass and catch of piscivorous fish...
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Maps of relative classifications (low to high) for six resilience indicators and two anthropogenic stressors and a map of final relative resilience scores for 78 sites in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The six resilience indicators are: bleaching resistance, coral diversity, coral recruitment, herbivore biomass, macroalgae cover and temperature variability. The two anthropogenic stressors are fishing access and nutrients and sediments. The resilience score map compares sites across all four of the surveyed islands: Saipan, Tinian, Aguijan, and Rota.
Abstract (from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320715300926): Ecological resilience assessments are an important part of resilience-based management (RBM) and can help prioritize and target management actions. Use of such assessments has been limited due to a lack of clear guidance on the assessment process. This study builds on the latest scientific advances in RBM to provide that guidance from a resilience assessment undertaken in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). We assessed spatial variation in ecological resilience potential at 78 forereef sites near the populated islands of the CNMI: Saipan, Tinian/Aguijan, and Rota. The assessments are based on measuring indicators...
This Project Snapshot provides a brief summary overview of the project "Assessing the Sustainability of Culturally Important Marine Sites in Guam and CNMI".
    map background search result map search result map Coral Reef Resilience to Climate Change in CNMI results Resilience Indicator Summaries and Resilience Scores CNMI Excel database Resilience Indicator Summaries and Resilience Scores CNMI JPEG Maps Assessing the Sustainability of Culturally Important Marine Sites in Guam and CNMI Understanding Sediment Transport to Coastal Waters and Coral Reefs in West Maui Understanding Sediment Transport to Coastal Waters and Coral Reefs in West Maui Coral Reef Resilience to Climate Change in CNMI results Resilience Indicator Summaries and Resilience Scores CNMI Excel database Resilience Indicator Summaries and Resilience Scores CNMI JPEG Maps Assessing the Sustainability of Culturally Important Marine Sites in Guam and CNMI