Publications by authors named "Ku'ulei S Rodgers"
Article Synopsis
- Terrestrial nutrient pollution is harming coral health, particularly by reducing their ability to withstand heat and increasing bleaching during stress.
- This study examined coral colonies from Kāne'ohe Bay under controlled heating and nutrient-enriched conditions to understand the effects of minor nutrient enrichment on thermal stress.
- Results indicated that nutrient-enriched colonies experienced delayed bleaching, higher calcification rates, and differences based on species, suggesting that low nutrient levels might help corals cope during heat events, warranting further research in diverse reef environments.
Stasis and diversity in living fossils: Species delimitation and evolution of lingulid brachiopods.
Mol Phylogenet Evol
October 2022
Article Synopsis
- The Lingulidae, often called living fossils, show minimal change since the Paleozoic, complicating their taxonomic study.
- Our research revealed a greater species diversity in living lingulids, identifying 14-22 species compared to the 11-12 currently recognized globally, emphasizing that morphological stasis can occur alongside speciation.
- Phylogenetic analysis suggests that Lingula likely originated in the early Cretaceous and that the separation of Lingula and Glottidia happened in the Mesozoic, challenging previous theories about their origins.
The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from 89 different studies. Hundreds of reports of unusual species observations from around the world suggest that animals quickly responded to the reductions in human presence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWithout drastic efforts to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate globalized stressors, tropical coral reefs are in jeopardy. Strategic conservation and management requires identification of the environmental and socioeconomic factors driving the persistence of scleractinian coral assemblages-the foundation species of coral reef ecosystems. Here, we compiled coral abundance data from 2,584 Indo-Pacific reefs to evaluate the influence of 21 climate, social and environmental drivers on the ecology of reef coral assemblages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOcean temperatures have been accelerating at an alarming rate mainly due to anthropogenic fossil fuel emissions. This has led to an increase in the severity and duration of coral bleaching events. Predicted projections for the state of reefs do not take into account the rates of adaptation or acclimatization of corals as these have not as yet been fully documented.
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- Dramatic increases in carbon emissions over the last century have caused coral reefs, especially in Hawaii, to experience severe bleaching and mortality, with 90% affected in some areas during 2014-2015.
- Research in Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve (HBNP) highlighted that bleaching reached 47% and coral mortality was 9.8% in certain sectors, influenced by local water circulation and temperature patterns.
- While local factors like fishing pressure are minimal in HBNP, the study found that areas with higher visitor traffic showed significant variations in coral health, indicating that human activity can impact coral ecosystems.
Coral reef restoration and management techniques are in ever-increasing demand due to the global decline of coral reefs in the last several decades. Coral relocation has been established as an appropriate restoration technique in select cases, particularly where corals are scheduled for destruction. However, continued long-term monitoring of recovery of transplanted corals is seldom sustained.
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- A study compared the metabolic responses of coral, coral-macroalgae, and macroalgae systems in sunlight to see how they function over a day.
- It found that photosynthesis is the main driver for calcification and changes in pH, with net photosynthesis influencing aragonite saturation levels.
- The coral systems showed complex interactions, like difficulties in expelling waste protons after peak energy production, alongside unique circular patterns in alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon levels when compared with macroalgae systems.
- Future models predicting coral growth must consider local photosynthesis impacts along with changes in oceanic conditions.
A linkage between the condition of watersheds and adjacent nearshore coral reef communities is an assumed paradigm in the concept of integrated coastal management. However, quantitative evidence for this "catchment to sea" or "ridge to reef" relationship on oceanic islands is lacking and would benefit from the use of appropriate marine and terrestrial landscape indicators to quantify and evaluate ecological status on a large spatial scale. To address this need, our study compared the Hawai'i Watershed Health Index (HI-WHI) and Reef Health Index (HI-RHI) derived independently of each other over the past decade.
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