Long-term Coral Reef Monitoring Across Leeward Maui
About this collection
- Collection
- Extent
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14 digital objects.
- Cite This Work
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Smith Lab, Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Sandin Lab, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (2026). Long-term Coral Reef Monitoring Across Leeward Maui. UC San Diego Library Digital Collections. https://doi.org/10.6075/J0NC625G
- Description
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The goal of this study is to document long-term patterns of change within Maui’s coral reef benthic communities. Maui’s reefs are subject to stress both from local factors (e.g., tourism, fishing, nutrient enrichment, and sedimentation) and global factors (climate change). Maui’s reefs experienced widespread bleaching in 2015 and 2019, which were among the first major bleaching events reported in the Hawaiian Islands. In the future, Maui’s reefs will face an increasing array of acute and chronic stressors, and data on the response of benthic communities to these stressors is critical to inform active management and conservation of coral reef ecosystems. The Smith Lab has been conducting research on Maui for nearly two decades and began collecting this long-term photographic dataset in 2014. This dataset can be used to better understand the effects of both local and global stressors on benthic community dynamics on this heavily populated island. This dataset consists of +20 forereef sites located along the leeward coast of Maui (stretching from Honokowai in the north to La Perouse Bay in the south). All sites are situated on hard bottom substrate and range from 3 to 14 m depth. Two sites are located within the submerged crater of the neighboring islet of Molokini, located 4.5 km offshore of Maui. Site selection was optimized to control for the influence of wave energy and depth on benthic community composition, and to align survey efforts with other long-term monitoring programs currently operating on Maui, including Hawaii's Coral Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (CRAMP) and monitoring efforts by the Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR). A core group of 8-10 sites have been surveyed at approximately annual intervals since 2014, while the remaining sites have been surveyed at least twice (2014 and 2017). For repeat surveys, sites are re-located using permanent or invariant features of the reef to ensure that the same section of reef is surveyed through time.
We use large-area imaging techniques to describe the benthic composition from each reef. At each reef site, we take approximately 5,000 pictures of the reef benthos, and then stitch these pictures together into a 3D model using Structure from Motion technology. These models can be used to document the growth, structural complexity, spatial structure, and competitive dynamics of benthic taxa. This approach generates multiple digital products, including images collected in the field, composite 3D models, 2D orthorectified images of the 3D models, and annotations of the 2D orthorectified images. By re-visiting exact locations and reconstructing 3D models of multiple time points, we have the unprecedented opportunity to track the dynamics of individual corals and patches of algae. With advanced image analysis we can track how a reef community changes, addressing questions of coral growth, death, and competition that are currently unresolved. Furthermore, this data can be applied to address conservation and management challenges. - Date Collected
- 2014 to present
- Date Issued
- 2026
- Contributor
- Laboratory
- Funding
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Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation (Graduate Research Fellowship Program award), the Scripps Family Foundation, the Bohn Family, the Ferguson Family Prize, and other generous donors. Field work was also made possible through in kind support from the Hawai'i Division of Aquatic Resources.
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- Language
- No linguistic content; Not applicable
