CoML CReefs French Frigate Shoals Cruise

On October 8, 2006, twenty scientists, including world renowned invertebrate, algal, and microbial taxonomists, embarked onboard the NOAA vessel Oscar Elton Sette, for a 23 day biodiversity census of understudied coral reef species in French Frigate Shoals of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, State and National Wildlife Refuge. 

This multi-agency field operation, led by the Census of Marine Life (CoML), Census of Coral Reefs (CReefs), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, has brought these experts (taxonomists, scientific divers, outreach and database specialists) together in an unprecedented effort to focus on the biodiversity of understudied, under celebrated species such as invertebrates, microbes and algae.

While annual reef assessment and monitoring program surveys are conducted throughout the NWHI by NOAA's Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, those surveys focus on the larger and better understood fish, corals, macroalgae and macroinvertebrates (lobsters, large crabs, sea urchins). 

Above photos and map courtesy of NOAA PIFSC

This expedition is unique in documenting diversity in ecologically critical, but non-charismatic, commercially unimportant organismal groups (across a range of habitats) that have historically been understudied because of lack of taxonomic expertise or logistical difficulties in sampling.  Although some of these smaller, more cryptic organisms may not be as charismatic as monk seals, or colorful aquarium fish (until you look under a microscope),

 (photo: Gustav Paulay)

they form the complex tapestry that supports the existence of the larger animals, and changes in their abundance or diversity are often the first indicators of environmental impacts or changes. These groups of organisms are the least understood and many new species records for the NWHI, as well as the discovery of new species, are likely during this expedition.

The CoML projects are designed to assess the diversity, distribution and abundance of ocean life and explain how it changes over time. This CReefs project, one of 17 projects within the CoML, will provide needed baseline information and foster understanding of coral reef ecosystems globally.  Three important goals of CoML that this cruise will help to address are:

•  to establish effective research programs that provide genetic, species, and community-level information to support ecosystem-based management;
• to improve capacity for ecosystem-based management and predicting ecosystem change through retrospective analysis, the development of improved tools, and the establishment of a data management system of marine biodiversity information; and
• to establish effective long-term mechanisms for the dissemination of information about marine biodiversity and public engagement in ocean issues. 

We will contribute to these goals by bringing these experts together to thoroughly survey various marine habitats at French Frigate Shoals, to establish community based species lists and to document previously unknown species. The research we are proposing here is unprecedented in the level of taxonomic expertise that will be brought together to conduct ship-based Census of Marine Life (CoML) censuses of the most poorly known taxonomic groups at French Frigate Shoals in the fall of 2006 (with a shorter, possible piggy-back mooring recovery cruise in the fall of 2007).   

Needs regarding target species, specific habitats, and sampling methods were thoroughly discussed and prioritized by taxonomic experts as well as managers in numerous workshops, meetings and conference calls in order to plan this effort with the utmost efficiency. 

CReefs Site Sampling, Planning & Methodology Workshop, Coconut Island, Hawaii, February 2006

In order to make informed and careful decisions regarding locations for sampling, the team consulted IKONOS (satellite) imagery, high resolution bathymetric and backscatter data (to investigate complexity and bottom type), video ground truthing data, and other towed diver benthic surveys and Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) survey data collected during NOAA's Coral Reef Ecosystem Division Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program and mapping cruises, as well as multiple scientists familiar with these datasets, areas within FFS, and the protocols.  This information is used to select sites for deployment of instruments as well (for example, locating sand areas for deployment of baited traps). 

CReefs Sites (courtesy of NOAA PIFSC & CReefs)

On average, we will survey up to three sites at each habitat type listed below, with three replicates per site.

Forereef (5, 10, 25m)

Reef crest (0-1m)

Back reef (1m)

Intertidal shores (0-1m)

Lagoon sand (5-10m)

Lagoon patch reef (5-10m)

Deep bank tops (30-100m)

Deep reef slopes (50-200m)

La Perouse

Arc shell reefs

Acropora areas

Halimeda fields

The diversity of marine invertebrates, algal and microbial communities and their habitats necessitates a broad and diverse array of collecting techniques.   Reef sites will be surveyed using a combination of the following techniques: hand collecting, rubble extraction, rubble brushing, suction, cryptofauna analysis, algal and microbial techniques and the Artificial Reef Matrix Structures (ARMS).  The soft bottom and lagoonal sand sites will be surveyed using hand collecting, sand sampling, the scoop, the Yabbie pump, mobile epifauna traps, and the Ekman (or Van Veen) grab. The water column will be sampled using the light traps and plankton nets.  These techniques have proven successful in many taxonomic research efforts throughout the world.

In addition to using traditional morphological taxonomic identifications, DNA from these poorly understood species will be used in a bar-coding study to help future researchers identify taxonomically challenging taxa.  Data collected will be input into the Pacific regional database, NBII's Pacific Basin Information Node and international Ocean Biogeographic Information System database and outreach and education personnel will package scientific findings and expedition notes into multiple formats that can be used for a variety of educational and outreach purposes.  Diversity will be documented for managers, public stakeholders, and the scientific community with a rich variety of specimens, photographs, and genetic samples.  With this research, we plan to assist managers by providing a more complete picture and baseline information regarding this pristine ecosystem and the species within it that they are charged with protecting.  We will do this by combining our research efforts with existing research, providing a more complete species inventory, thereby filling critical gaps in information, and by providing research which will aid in a greater understanding of biodiversity on a local, national, and global scale.

For more information, visit www.creefs.org.

To learn more about the scientific work NOAA is conducting in the NWHI, visit the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center at http://www.pifsc.noaa.gov/.