Rebounds, regresses, and recovery: A 15-year study of the coral reef community at Pila'a, Kaua'i after decades of natural and anthropogenic stress events.

Pila'a reef on the north shore of Kaua'i, Hawai'i was subjected to a major flood event in 2001 that deposited extensive sediment on the reef flat, resulting in high coral mortality. To document potential recovery, this study replicated benthic and sediment surveys conducted immediately following the event and 15 years later. Coral cores were analyzed to determine coral growth rates and density.

Effectiveness of coral relocation as a mitigation strategy in Kāne'ohe Bay, Hawai'i.

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.

Thirty years of coral reef change in relation to coastal construction and increased sedimentation at Pelekane Bay, Hawai'i.

Coral reefs are being critically impacted by anthropogenic processes throughout the world. Long term monitoring is essential to the understanding of coral reef response to human impacts and the effectiveness of corrective management efforts. Here we reevaluated a valuable coral reef baseline established in Pelekane Bay, Hawai'i during 1976 and subsequently resurveyed in 1996.

The projected timing of climate departure from recent variability.

Ecological and societal disruptions by modern climate change are critically determined by the time frame over which climates shift beyond historical analogues. Here we present a new index of the year when the projected mean climate of a given location moves to a state continuously outside the bounds of historical variability under alternative greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. Using 1860 to 2005 as the historical period, this index has a global mean of 2069 (±18 years s.