| | 講 題 | The Ecology of Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems in Hawaii | | | 講 者 | Associate Professor of Oceanography, Hawaii Pacific University, Honolulu, Hawaii | | | 日 期 | 2016/09/22 | 長 度 | 00:40:21 | 人 氣 | 209 次 | | | Coral reefs are among the most biodiverse and productive ecosystems on the planet. However, our understanding of these ecosystems and their inhabitants has primarily been gleaned from shallow-water studies (<40 m), and light-dependent corals and the ecosystems they support extend much deeper (e.g., 150 m in some locations). Given the decline of shallow water coral reefs due to both direct and indirect anthropogenic activities, the role of mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) as refugia for shallow-water communities has fueled new investigations into this realm. In the Hawaiian Archipelago, MCEs occur from the Big Island (18.5°N) to Kure Atoll (28°N) spanning 2,500 km. The combination of a largely homogeneous but low diversity coral reef community spanning a wide latitudinal gradient provides a unique opportunity for studying ecological processes across broad environmental gradients. Thanks in part to the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory (http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/HURL/) and the abundance of mesophotic habitat surrounding the islands and atolls, Hawaii has led the rest of the Indo-Pacific in MCE research.This presentation will discuss some of the many MCE research findings from Hawaii including the biodiversity of MCEs, the vertical zonation of coral community structure, the unique environmental regime of deep reefs, the photophysiology of deep water zooxanthellate corals, and the environmental factors determining the lower depth limits of MCEs. | | | 提 供 | 國立海洋生物博物館- The 7th International Symposium for Marine Biology and Biotechnology | | |
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