| Montipora dilatata | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Cnidaria |
| Class: | Anthozoa |
| Order: | Scleractinia |
| Family: | Acroporidae |
| Genus: | Montipora |
| Species: | M. dilatata |
| Binomial name | |
| Montipora dilatata Studer, 1901 [1] | |
Montipora dilatata, commonly known as the Hawaiian reef coral, is a species of coral in the family Acroporidae.
Morphology of this species can be quite variable. Colonies may be any combination of encrustations, plates, knobs, and branches. Montipora dilatata is a glabro-favoleate type that is characterized by a very smooth surface. Colonies are usually purple or brown and reach 3 feet (1 m) in diameter. The species only occurs in the Hawaiian archipelago, in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, and in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) at Midway Atoll, Pearl and Hermes Atoll, Lisianski Island, Laysan Island, Maro Reef, and French Frigate Shoals.
This species requires calm water in sub-tidal environments. The species is easily broken into fragments by storms or bioerosion, with the fragments readily growing into new colonies. This species occurs in lagoons and bays and appears to be restricted to shallow, low-water motion environments. This species is very rare in Kaneohe Bay, but used to be more abundant and occurred in large patches on some of the reef flats.
It has declined significantly over time and only 3 colonies were found in a 2000 survey. The main threats to M. dilatata include: 1) vulnerability to coral bleaching due to high temperatures (it was the first species to bleach during the 1996 event in Kaneohe Bay); 2) fresh water kills and exposure at extreme low tide; 3) habitat degradation and modification as a result of sedimentation, pollution, alien alga species ( Gracilaria salicornia , Kappaphycus and Eucheuma spp. algae) and invasive green alga ( Dictyosphaeria cavernosa ) in Kaneohe Bay; 4) a limited distribution; and 5) damage by anchors, fish pots, swimmers and divers.
Two other species, M. turgescens at Kure Atoll and M. cf. dilatata (recorded at one site out of 30 sites surveyed at Maro Reef in 2000-2002) are similar, and genetic analysis should be done to confirm their separation into distinct species.
The Hawaiian reef coral is a U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service Species of Concern. Species of Concern are those species about which the U.S. Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service has some concerns regarding status and threats, but for which insufficient information is available to indicate a need to list the species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). [2]
Coral collection is not allowed in the state waters of Hawaii without a research permit.
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups.
Coral bleaching occurs when coral polyps expel algae that live inside their tissues. Normally, coral polyps live in an endosymbiotic relationship with these algae, which are crucial for the health of the coral and the reef. The algae provides up to 90 percent of the coral's energy. Bleached corals continue to live but begin to starve after bleaching. Some corals recover.
Maro Reef is a largely submerged coral atoll located in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It was discovered in 1820 by Captain Joseph Allen of the ship Maro, after whose ship the reef was named. With a total area of 747 square miles (1,935 km2), it is the largest coral reef in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It contains 37 species of stony coral. Unlike most atolls, the coral extends out from the center like spokes on a wheel. Located about 850 miles northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii, Maro Reef contains about 1 acre (4,000 m2) of dry land which itself can be submerged depending on the tides. Some scientists believe that it "may be on the verge of drowning" because the reefs are detached and are vulnerable to strong storm waves.
The Pearl and Hermes Atoll is part of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a group of small islands and atolls that form the farthest northwest portion of the Hawaiian island chain. The atoll consists of a variable number of flat and sandy islets, typically between five and seven. More were noted in historical sources but have since been lost to erosion and rising sea levels.
The staghorn coral is a branching, stony coral with cylindrical branches ranging from a few centimetres to over two metres in length and height. It occurs in back reef and fore reef environments from 0 to 30 m depth. The upper limit is defined by wave forces, and the lower limit is controlled by suspended sediments and light availability. Fore reef zones at intermediate depths 5–25 m (16–82 ft) were formerly dominated by extensive single-species stands of staghorn coral until the mid-1980s. This coral exhibits the fastest growth of all known western Atlantic fringe corals, with branches increasing in length by 10–20 cm (3.9–7.9 in) per year. This has been one of the three most important Caribbean corals in terms of its contribution to reef growth and fishery habitat.
The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is a World Heritage listed U.S. National Monument encompassing 583,000 square miles (1,510,000 km2) of ocean waters, including ten islands and atolls of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Created in June 2006 with 140,000 square miles (360,000 km2), it was expanded in August 2016 by moving its border to the limit of the exclusive economic zone, making it one of the world's largest protected areas. It is internationally known for its cultural and natural values as follows:
"The area has deep cosmological and traditional significance for living Native Hawaiian culture, as an ancestral environment, as an embodiment of the Hawaiian concept of kinship between people and the natural world, and as the place where it is believed that life originates and to where the spirits return after death. On two of the islands, Nihoa and Mokumanamana, there are archaeological remains relating to pre-European settlement and use. Much of the monument is made up of pelagic and deepwater habitats, with notable features such as seamounts and submerged banks, extensive coral reefs and lagoons."
The Belize Barrier Reef is a series of coral reefs straddling the coast of Belize, roughly 300 meters (980 ft) offshore in the north and 40 kilometers (25 mi) in the south within the country limits. The Belize Barrier Reef is a 300-kilometer (190 mi) long section of the 900-kilometer (560 mi) Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, which is continuous from Cancún on the north-eastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula through the Riviera Maya and down to Honduras, making it the second largest coral reef system in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It is Belize's top tourist destination, popular for scuba diving and snorkeling and attracting almost half of its 260,000 visitors. It is also vital to the country's fishing industry.
Elkhorn coral is an important reef-building coral in the Caribbean. The species has a complex structure with many branches which resemble that of elk antlers; hence, the common name. The branching structure creates habitat and shelter for many other reef species. Elkhorn coral is known to grow quickly with an average growth rate of 5 to 10 cm per year. They can reproduce both sexually and asexually, though asexual reproduction is much more common and occurs through a process called fragmentation.
The Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) is a marine biology laboratory located on the state-owned Coconut Island in Kāneʻohe Bay.
Coral aquaculture, also known as coral farming or coral gardening, is the cultivation of corals for commercial purposes or coral reef restoration. Aquaculture is showing promise as a tool for restoring coral reefs, which are dying off around the world. The process protects young corals while they are most at risk of dying. Small corals are propagated in nurseries and then replanted on the reef.
Montipora digitata, also known as finger coral, is a species of stony coral. It is found in shallow water in East Africa, the Indo-West Pacific, Kenya, Mozambique and Rodriguez.
Porites lobata, known by the common name lobe coral, is a species of stony coral in the family Poritidae. It is found growing on coral reefs in tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Porites compressa, also known as finger coral or hump coral, is a species of marine stony coral in the family Poritidae. It is found growing on coral reefs and in shallow lagoons in tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Acropora cerealis is a species of acroporid coral found throughout the Indian and Pacific oceans, from the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the Hawaiian Islands and the Johnston Atoll. It can be found on upper reef slopes in shallow tropical reefs, from depths of 3–20 m. Crown-of-thorns starfish preferentially prey upon Acropora corals, and this species is also harvested for the aquarium trade.
Acropora valida is a species of acroporid coral found in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the southwestern, northwestern and northern Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, the central Indo-Pacific, Australia, southeast Asia, Japan, the East China Sea, the oceanic western, central and far eastern Pacific Ocean, the northwestern Hawaiian Islands and Johnston Atoll. It occurs in tropical shallow reefs in a variety of reef habitats, at depths of 1 to 15 metres.
Montipora aequituberculata is a species of stony coral in the family Acroporidae. It is a common coral in shallow water in the Indo-Pacific region.
Agaricia agaricites, commonly known as lettuce coral or tan lettuce-leaf coral, is a species of colonial stony corals in the family Agariciidae. This coral is found in shallow waters in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is a common species and the IUCN has assessed its status as being of "least concern".
Acropora paniculata is a species of acroporid coral that was first described by Addison Emery Verrill in 1902. Found in marine, tropical, shallow reefs on the upper slopes, it occurs at depths of between 10 and 35 m. It is classed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List, and it has a decreasing population. It is uncommon but found over a large area, including in five regions of Indonesia, and is classified under CITES Appendix II.
Coral bleaching in Oahu has been on the rise since 1996, when Hawaii's first major coral bleaching occurred in Kaneohe Bay, followed by major bleaching events in the Northwest islands in 2002 and 2004. In 2014, biologists from the University of Queensland observed the first mass bleaching event, and attributed it to The Blob.
The coral reefs of Tuvalu consist of three reef islands and six atolls, containing approximately 710 km2 (270 sq mi) of reef platforms. The islands of the Tuvalu archipelago are spread out between the latitude of 5° to 10° south and longitude of 176° to 180°, west of the International Date Line. The islands of Tuvalu are volcanic in origin. On the atolls, an annular reef rim surrounds the lagoon, and may include natural reef channels. The reef islands have a different structure to the atolls, and are described as reef platforms as they are smaller tabular reef platforms that do not have a salt-water lagoon, although they may have a completely closed rim of dry land, with the remnants of a lagoon that has no direct connection to the open sea or that may be drying up.
