42 / 100
MESOPHOTIC CORAL ECOSYSTEMS – A LIFEBOAT FOR CORAL REEFS?
42
Table 1.
Deepest in situ observations of obligate zooxanthellate corals by island (see Figure 1 for location).
Maui Nui
O
‘
ahu
19.5
21.0
21.3
153
131
115
Kahng and Maragos 2006
Kahng and Maragos 2006
Blythe-Skyrme et al. 2013
Location
Latitude (
o
N)
Depth (m)
Reference
Kaua
‘
i
French Frigate Shoals
Pearl & Hermes
21.9
23.7
27.9
110
77
67
pers. obs., HURL P4-223
Blythe-Skyrme et al. 2013
Luck et al. 2013
Ni
‘
ihau-Kaula
Midway
Kure
28.2
28.4
66
66
Luck et al. 2013
Luck et al. 2013
21.6
111
pers. obs., HURL P5-571
Deepest in situ observations of obligate zooxanthellate corals by island.
Hawai
‘
i
While MCEs in Hawai‘i are subject to the same natural and
anthropogenic disturbances as other MCEs (reviewed in
Bongaerts et al. 2010a), Hawai‘i’s evolutionary isolation and
low species diversity of shallow-water marine fauna likely
increase its susceptibility to non-indigenous invasive species
from underrepresented taxa (Stachowicz and Tilman 2005,
Kahng 2006). At mesophotic depths in Maui Nui, the invasive
octocoral
Carijoa riisei
, which is cryptic in shallow-water,
has been reported to be dominating rugose substrate and
overgrowing antipatharian and scleractinian fauna (Kahng and
Grigg 2005, Kahng 2007). On the island of Oahu, the invasive
green alga
Avrainvillea
sp. (first reported in 1981) has been
observed forming vast meadows to depths of 90 m (Peyton
2009, Spalding 2012). At French Frigate Shoals, the bluestripe
snapper,
Lutjanus kasmira
, was recorded as the second most
abundant fish at 30–90m(Kane et al. 2014). Introduced toOahu
in 1955, it is prolific in shallow water across the archipelago
(Friedlander et al. 2002, Gaither et al. 2013). Therefore, its
abundance on mesophotic reefs in the Main Hawaiian Islands
is probably significant. These reports demonstrate the potential
susceptibility of Hawai‘i’s MCEs to biological invasions, which
have been well documented in shallow-water and terrestrial
ecosystems (U.S. Congress OTA 1993, Coles and Eldredge
2002, Eldredge and Carlton 2002, Smith et al. 2002).