MA8 Ecotoxicology of Tropical Aquatic Environments
A105 & A106
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Monday
() Assessing the impacts of local and global stressors on coral reefs in American Samoa.
Mielbrecht, E1, Hansen, L2, DiDonato, G3, DiDonato, E4, Adams, N5, Zepp, R6, 1 Emerald Coast Environmental Consulting, Washington, DC, USA2 World Wildlife Fund, Washington, DC, USA3 National Park of American Samoa, Pago Pago, American Samoa, USA4 American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency, Pago Pago, American Samoa, USA5 California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA6 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Athens, GA, USA
ABSTRACT- One of the most critical challenges in studying population responses to environmental stressors is understanding the interaction of multiple stresses in the system. Coral reefs have been shown to be extremely sensitive to sea surface temperature rise with widespread coral bleaching occurring at one to two degrees above the local maximum monthly mean temperature. More importantly, coral bleaching can be locally modulated by other stressors including pollutants, nutrient load, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and inter and intra species variability. The question that arises is do these local environmental pressures alter the amount of coral bleaching and subsequent recovery or mortality in the near shore waters of Tutuila Island in American Samoa. If so, would mitigation of local pollution lessen global warming impacts to these reefs? Near-shore variability in water pollution, nutrient load, and molecular differences between and within coral species was repeatedly quantified at seven sites on Tutuila Island from 2002 to 2004. Differences in annual coral bleaching and recovery were also recorded to ascertain the local variability of coral response to large scale thermal stress. The practical goal of this project is to aid natural resource managers in developing adaptation strategies to better protect marine resources from global warming.
Key words: multiple stresses, coral bleaching, global warming