Human Impacts on Coral Reefs of Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Revealed

In the current issue of the journal Coral Reefs, authors Kimberly Selkoe and Benjamin Halpern, both of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California at Santa Barbara, explain how maps of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI)--a vast area stretching across more than 1,200 miles of Pacific Ocean--can be used to make informed decisions about protecting the world's fragile coral reefs.

"Our maps of cumulative human impacts are a powerful tool for synthesizing and visualizing the state of the oceans," said Selkoe, who is also affiliated with Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawaii.

"The maps can aid in zoning uses of the oceans in an informed way that maximizes commercial and societal benefits, while minimizing further cumulative impact."

President George W. Bush declared the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a National Monument in 2006, "in part because it is one of the last places in the oceans that have not been heavily altered by human activities," said Halpern.

Human-induced climate change threats were also studied, including increased ultraviolet radiation, ocean acidification, ocean temperature anomalies relevant to disease outbreaks and coral bleaching, and sea level rise.

Increased rates of coral disease due to warming ocean temperatures were found to have the highest impact, along with other climate-related threats.