Does lagoon water eflux affect coral health? An investigation of physical properties of lagoon circulation on coral health at Christmas Island and Palmyra Atoll

<a href="https://embed.stanford.edu/iframe/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpurl.stanford.edu%2Fxy899kw0142" class="su-underline">Show Content</a>

Abstract/Contents

Abstract: At Christmas Island and Palmyra Atoll, two coral atolls in the Northern Line Group, we surveyed coral communities and gathered data on physical properties and flow patterns of the lagoon water to assess the effects of lagoon water efflux on their health and genus richness. Physical data and flow pattern information was gathered by using HOBO loggers to record light intensity and water temperature over time (May 22-24 and 28-30, 2007, at Christmas and Palmyra, respectively), using a towable CTD and doing transects near the channel openings at each island using the Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler. At Christmas Island, we hypothesized that effects of lagoon water would be indiscernible due to other anthropogenic forcings such as overfishing and sediment runoff; however, we found that areas of low live cover and genus richness seemed to be correlated to areas of higher lagoon water efflux, and that areas with the highest live cover seemed to be protected from the efflux of warm lagoon water. At Palmyra Atoll, we hypothesized that the lagoon water was flowing westward across the atoll and out the channel opening. Furthermore, that this warmer, more turbid water mass was negatively impacting the corals near the channel opening. Our findings support this hypothesis: we found evidence both for the westward flow of the lagoon water and lower live cover near the channel opening on the west side, which correlated to higher maximum temperatures at these sites.

Type of resource	text
Date created	June 11, 2007

Subject	Stanford@SEA
Subject	S-211
Subject	Hopkins Marine Station
Subject	Department of Biology
Subject	Department of Earth System Science
Subject	BIOHOPK 182H
Subject	BIOHOPK 323H
Subject	EARTHSYS 323
Subject	ESS 323
Subject	Christmas Island
Subject	Kiribati
Subject	Palmyra
Subject	Northern Line Group
Subject	lagoon
Subject	water efflux
Subject	light intensity
Subject	water temperature
Subject	CTD
Subject	Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler
Subject	ADCP
Subject	anthropogenic pressure
Subject	fishing
Subject	runoff
Subject	coral
Subject	reef
Genre	Student project report

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/xy899kw0142

Use and reproduction: User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).

Preferred Citation: McNally, Jessica; Urmy, Samuel; Bartz, John. 2007. Does lagoon water eflux affect coral health? An investigation of physical properties of lagoon circulation on coral health at Christmas Island and Palmyra Atoll. Unpublished Student Work, S-211, Stanford@SEA, Stanford Digital Repository. https://purl.stanford.edu/xy899kw0142.

Stanford@SEA -- Student papers

Loading usage metrics...