BioOne.org will be down briefly for maintenance on 17 December 2024 between 18:00-22:00 Pacific Time US. We apologize for any inconvenience.
How to translate text using browser tools
1 January 2010 Water-Quality Variables Across Sekisei Reef, A Large Reef Complex in Southwestern Japan
Naoko Morimoto, Yasuo Furushima, Masayuki Nagao, Takahiro Irie, Akira Iguchi, Atsushi Suzuki, Kazuhiko Sakai
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

At Sekisei Reef in southwestern Japan (24° N), coral cover dramatically decreased in the mid-1980s, probably due to a population outbreak of the coral predator Acanthaster planci. Coral communities subsequently recovered well outside the semiclosed lagoon, but recovery has been poor inside it. Hence, water-quality degradation including eutrophication has been a concern inside the lagoon. In addition, temporal variation in eutrophication parameters is common among high-latitude coral reefs, resulting in difficulties in evaluating them. Therefore, to address these issues, we monitored temperature, salinity, turbidity, chlorophyll-a, NOx-N (NO3-N NO2-N), and NH4-N concentrations year-round across the lagoon at Sekisei Reef. Turbidity and NOx-N concentration increased with increasing wind velocity, suggesting that variation in turbidity and NOx-N concentrations was attributed to resuspension of bottom sediments, and NOx-N release through regeneration processes of micro-organisms from the sediments and reef frameworks, respectively. In contrast, variation in chlorophyll-a and NH4-N concentrations appears to be mainly controlled by the seasonality of temperature and irradiance. Long retention time of seawater inside the lagoon seems to have enhanced NH4-N assimilation and increase of phytoplankton during summer. Inside the lagoon, turbidity, NOx-N, and summer chlorophyll-a concentrations were higher, and variation in temperature was larger than outside it. Although water quality appears not to be seriously degraded, multiple effects of these water-quality variables might have negatively affected recovery of coral communities inside the lagoon. Recent expansion of land use on nearby islands might have contributed to water-quality degradation inside the lagoon.

© 2010 by University of Hawai'i Press
Naoko Morimoto, Yasuo Furushima, Masayuki Nagao, Takahiro Irie, Akira Iguchi, Atsushi Suzuki, and Kazuhiko Sakai "Water-Quality Variables Across Sekisei Reef, A Large Reef Complex in Southwestern Japan," Pacific Science 64(1), 113-123, (1 January 2010). https://doi.org/10.2984/64.1.113
Accepted: 1 December 2008; Published: 1 January 2010
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission
Back to Top