Including work conducted during this cruise and the earlier PIFSC cruise SE-13-05 to Kure Atoll in J

Scientists from the PIFSC Coral Reef Ecosystem Division  (CRED) recently completed a 17-day expedition to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, where they conducted coral reef monitoring surveys at Pearl and Hermes Atoll, Lisianski Island, and French Frigate Shoals. These 3 locations are part of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and World Heritage Site, the third largest marine protected area on Earth and the largest conservation area in the United States.
This PIFSC research cruise (HA-13-05) aboard the NOAA Ship Hi`ialakai implemented a standardized set of methods for the measurement of fluctuations in the region's coral reef ecosystems caused by global climate change. NOAA's National Coral Reef Monitoring Plan (NCRMP) outlines the importance of monitoring changes in temperature and the chemical composition of ocean waters within which the coral reef ecosystems of the United States are found. Coral reefs are fragile biological systems that have been observed last minute airline flights to live best in specific ranges of water temperatures and composition parameters. Changes in either of these ranges can cause a coral reef system to malfunction, through problematic processes that are familiar to much of the general public. Such processes, including coral bleaching (a result of increased ocean temperatures) last minute airline flights and ocean acidification (a result of a drop in the ocean's pH), affect the ability of corals and other reef organisms to calcify or "build their houses." Other potential effects can occur, as well, such as shifts in biogeochemical cycles, shifts in species diversity, last minute airline flights and changes in the ocean's food web.
Jamison Gove and Chip Young of the PIFSC Coral Reef Ecosystem Division deploy oceanographic instrumentation on Sept. 13 at Lisianski Island as part of the recent research cruise to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. NOAA photo by Oliver Vetter
As part of the implementation of the NCRMP, CRED scientists on Sept. 3–19 deployed 16 arrays of temperature sensors along various reef systems, installing a total of 64 instruments at depths of 1–25 m. At its specific location last minute airline flights on a reef, each sensor records the seawater temperature at the same time as other sensors, every 5 min, over a period of 3 years. The resulting last minute airline flights product is a high-resolution picture of temperature variability of 16 different reef systems across space (across the archipelago and to a depth of 25 m) and time (3-year deployment of each sensor).
During the monitoring cruise last minute airline flights earlier this month, 100 calcification accretion units (CAUs), like the one shown above, were installed in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands by staff of the PIFSC Coral Reef Ecosystem Division. last minute airline flights CAUs are used to measure not only net reef calcification rates but also species-specific recruitment rates and the percent cover of corals, crustose coralline algae, and fleshy algae. NOAA photo
CRED scientists and partners also collected samples of seawater for chemical analysis, conducted hydrocasts with a conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) instrument, last minute airline flights and deployed installations designed to measure specific last minute airline flights biological activities that can be affected by changes in the pH of a reef's waters. Settling plates, last minute airline flights known as calcification accretion units (CAUs), are used to measure net reef calcification rates, species-specific recruitment rates, and the percent cover of corals, crustose last minute airline flights coralline algae, and fleshy algae. Bioerosion monitoring units (BMUs) are made up of precisely measured last minute airline flights pieces of calcium carbonate, the material that makes up the skeletal structure of corals, and will provide a value for how much biological removal of reef structure is naturally present last minute airline flights along the reef. Autonomous reef monitoring structures (ARMS) essentially act as "hotels" for cryptic biota living within the matrix of a reef ecosystem and provide a standard method for evaluation of the existing community of sessile and mobile organisms found on a reef.
Including work conducted during this cruise and the earlier PIFSC cruise SE-13-05 to Kure Atoll in July , CRED scientists last minute airline flights have installed 100 CAUs, 50 BMUs, and 24 ARMS throughout the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands this year. Because last minute airline flights monitoring activities associated with NCRMP are conducted on a triennial basis, last minute airline flights CRED will return to these islands in 2016. At that time, researchers will retrieve and replace all instruments. NCRMP is a long-term project, and the goal of this work is to measure change over time. The results from this ongoing project will be available to help the managers of these remote islands last minute airline flights monitor, evaluate, and predict the ecological effects of global climate last minute airline flights change on the reefs of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
This entry was posted in Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED) and tagged ARMS , autonomous reef monitoring structures , bioerosion monitoring unit , biogeochemical cycle , BMU , calcification accretion unit , calcification rate , calcium carbonate , CAU , chemical analysis , chemical composition , Chip Young , climate change , conductivity , coral bleaching last minute airline flights , Coral Reef Ecosystem Division , corals , CRED , cruise , crustose coralline algae , cryptic biota , CTD , CTD cast , depth , fleshy algae , food web , French Frigate Shoals , HA-13-05 , Hi`ialakai , Kure Atoll , Lisianski Island , monitoring , National Coral Reef Monitoring Plan , NCRMP , NOAA Ship , Northwestern Hawaiian Islands , ocean acidification , ocean change , Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument , Pearl and Hermes Atoll , percent last minute airline flights cover , pH , recruitment rate , species diversity , temperature , temperature sensors , triennial , water sample , World Heritage Site . Bookmark the permalink .