Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Mar 1;13(3):e0189792.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189792. eCollection 2018.

Advancing the integration of spatial data to map human and natural drivers on coral reefs

Lisa M Wedding  1 , Joey Lecky  2   3 , Jamison M Gove  3 , Hilary R Walecka  1   4 , Mary K Donovan  5 , Gareth J Williams  6 , Jean-Baptiste Jouffray  7 , Larry B Crowder  1 , Ashley Erickson  1 , Kim Falinski  2 , Alan M Friedlander  5   8 , Carrie V Kappel  9 , John N Kittinger  10   11 , Kaylyn McCoy  5 , Albert Norström  7   12 , Magnus Nyström  7   12 , Kirsten L L Oleson  2 , Kostantinos A Stamoulis  5   13 , Crow White  14 , Kimberly A Selkoe  9   4   15
Affiliations

Advancing the integration of spatial data to map human and natural drivers on coral reefs

Lisa M Wedding et al. PLoS One. .

Erratum in

Abstract

A major challenge for coral reef conservation and management is understanding how a wide range of interacting human and natural drivers cumulatively impact and shape these ecosystems. Despite the importance of understanding these interactions, a methodological framework to synthesize spatially explicit data of such drivers is lacking. To fill this gap, we established a transferable data synthesis methodology to integrate spatial data on environmental and anthropogenic drivers of coral reefs, and applied this methodology to a case study location-the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI). Environmental drivers were derived from time series (2002-2013) of climatological ranges and anomalies of remotely sensed sea surface temperature, chlorophyll-a, irradiance, and wave power. Anthropogenic drivers were characterized using empirically derived and modeled datasets of spatial fisheries catch, sedimentation, nutrient input, new development, habitat modification, and invasive species. Within our case study system, resulting driver maps showed high spatial heterogeneity across the MHI, with anthropogenic drivers generally greatest and most widespread on O'ahu, where 70% of the state's population resides, while sedimentation and nutrients were dominant in less populated islands. Together, the spatial integration of environmental and anthropogenic driver data described here provides a first-ever synthetic approach to visualize how the drivers of coral reef state vary in space and demonstrates a methodological framework for implementation of this approach in other regions of the world. By quantifying and synthesizing spatial drivers of change on coral reefs, we provide an avenue for further research to understand how drivers determine reef diversity and resilience, which can ultimately inform policies to protect coral reefs.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Study area.
Map highlighting the main Hawaiian Islands study area and spatial footprint of anthropogenic and environmental driver data developed for this study extending offshore to 5 km. Biological monitoring data on coral reefs is generally shallower than the 30 m depth contour.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Methodological framework.
Overall approach and steps to support the integration of spatial data to map human and natural drivers on coral reefs.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Anthropogenic and environmental drivers.
Typology for primary proximate anthropogenic and environmental drivers for coastal waters of the main Hawaiian Islands from the shoreline extending 5 km offshore.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Non-commercial shore-based fishing.
Maps of the final continuous spatial layers for non-commercial shore-based fishing catch (kg/ha) on the Kohala coast of the Island of Hawai‘i. Maps depict the average annual catch of reef fish by non-commercial shore-based fishing with line, spear, and net gears (left to right, respectively). Inset maps on each panel show examples of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) with different gear restrictions. Only MPAs that completely prohibit use of the respective gears are shown on each panel. Upper inset = Lapakahi Marine Life Conservation District (MLCD): zone 1 is full no take, zone 2 allows line and net fishing but prohibits spearfishing. Lower inset = Waialea Bay MLCD: line fishing is allowed but spear and net are prohibited.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Land-based pollution.
Maps of land-based pollution in central Maui Nui. From left to right: sedimentation (tons of sediment/yr/ha), nitrogen flux from onsite waste disposal systems (OSDS) (g/day/km2), and new development (scaled 0–1) which represents the impact of sediment runoff from recent construction sites on newly developed land between 2005–2011.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Invasive species and habitat modification.
Top: Invasive species (presence only) on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i (green-invasive algae, yellow-invasive fish). Invasive algae layer is displayed on top of invasive fish. Bottom: Habitat modification (red) present on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i including manmade and artificial shorelines, maintained channels and dredged areas, and offshore aquaculture.
Fig 7
Fig 7. Environmental drivers.
Spatial distributions in key environmental drivers that influence coral reef ecosystems, including chlorophyll-a (mg m-3), sea surface temperature (°C), wave power (kW m-1), and irradiance (Einstein m-2 d-1) across the eight main Hawaiian Islands.
Fig 8
Fig 8. Primary anthropogenic drivers.
Distributions of primary proximate anthropogenic drivers by island for the main Hawaiian Islands ordered from north to south. Box plots represent minimum, 1st quartile, mean, 3rd quartile, and maximum for each continuous driver, and categorical drivers (i.e. presence) are histograms of frequency of occurrence. Drivers include (A) total commercial catch for all gears combined (kg/ha), (B) total non-commercial catch for all gears combined (kg/ha), (C) sediment (Tons/yr/ha), (D) nitrogen flux from OSDS (g/day/km2), (E) invasive fish, (F) invasive algae, (G) habitat modification (proportion of reef area with presence), (H) new development (unitless).
Fig 9
Fig 9. Principle component analysis of anthropogenic and environmental drivers.
Principle component analysis (PCA) of the anthropogenic and environmental drivers based on median values by island. Loadings for each principle component drawn as grey lines in the direction of increasing values. PAR = Photosynthetically Active Radiation (irradiance); Chl a = Chlorophyll-a.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Gove JM, Williams GJ, McManus MA, Clark SJ, Ehses JS, Wedding LM. Coral reef benthic regimes exhibit non-linear threshold responses to natural physical drivers. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 2015. March 2;522:33–48.
    1. Williams GJ, Smith JE, Conklin EJ, Gove JM, Sala E, Sandin SA. Benthic communities at two remote Pacific coral reefs: effects of reef habitat, depth, and wave energy gradients on spatial patterns. PeerJ. 2013. May 28;1:e81 10.7717/peerj.81 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Norström AV, Nyström M, Jouffray JB, Folke C, Graham NA, Moberg F, et al. Guiding coral reef futures in the Anthropocene. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 2016. November 1;14(9):490–8.
    1. Williams ID, Baum JK, Heenan A, Hanson KM, Nadon MO, Brainard RE. Human, oceanographic and habitat drivers of central and western Pacific coral reef fish assemblages. PLoS One. 2015. April 1;10(4):e0120516 10.1371/journal.pone.0120516 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Halpern BS, Walbridge S, Selkoe KA, Kappel CV, Micheli F, D'agrosa C, et al. A global map of human impact on marine ecosystems. Science. 2008. February 15;319(5865):948–52. 10.1126/science.1149345 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (https://www.moore.org/), grant number 2897.01, and authors receiving funding included Lisa M. Wedding, Mary K. Donovan, Hilary R. Walecka, Larry B. Crowder, Ashley Erickson, Carrie V. Kappel, John N. Kittinger, Crow White and Kimberly A. Selkoe; NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (http://coralreef.noaa.gov/), grant numbers: NA13NOS482002 and NA14NOS4820089 and NA14NOS4820098, and authors receiving funding included Kirsten Oleson, Kim Falinski, Joey Lecky, and Mary Donovan; United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (https://nifa.usda.gov/), grant number: 2014HI433B, and authors receiving funding included Kim Falinski, Joey Lecky; and NOAA Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary (http://hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov/), grant number: 004496-00002, and the author receiving funding was Joey Lecky. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

LinkOut - more resources