Nonindigenous Marine Species in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii in 1999-2000 (NODC Accession 0001053)

The presence and impact of nonindigenous (introduced) marine organisms in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands are evaluated using a combination of historical records and on-site surveys and findings are compared with the results of similar studies conducted in Hawaii and the Pacific. Observations and collections were made in November 1999 to January 2000 at 24 stations from variety of habitats and environments throughout the bay and from one site at Moku Manu Island outside the bay. A comprehensive literature review of published papers and books and unpublished reports was conducted to develop a listing of previous species reports, and the marine invertebrates, fish, mollusk and algae collections at Bishop Museum were queried for information regarding all organisms that had been collected from Kaneohe Bay. The assembled data were developed into a relational data base used to determine the 1999-2000 percent component of the total biota that was non indigenous or cryptogenic, the number of new reports for the bay versus the number of previous reports not found, and a chronology of first reports of introductions. The 1999-2000 surveys observed or collected a total of 786 taxa including 617 species, more than six times the number of taxa previously reported by any single survey of biota in the bay. Of these, 59% of the total taxa and 51% of the named species were new reports for Kaneohe Bay after consideration of nomenclatural name changes. However, only 24% of the total taxa previously reported for the bay were found by the present study. This may be due in part to misidentifications in previous studies, non-sampling of meiobiota and plankton by the present study, or actual disappearance of some species from the bay such as the introduced mollusk Haliotis sp. However, the results suggest that further sampling and observation would produce considerably more taxa and species. Historically, 204 nonindigenous or cryptogenic species (collectively termed NIS) have been reported in Kaneohe Bay since 1920, and 116 were found on the 1999-2000 surveys, the most that have been determined for any single study in the Hawaiian Islands or Johnston Atoll. In terms of the component of total identified species, NIS composed 18.8%, among the highest percentage components that has been found in Hawaii and second only to the 23% value that was determined for Pearl Harbor. Fifty-two of the NIS were new reports for the bay. However, all but 16 of the new bay reports had previously been reported in Hawaii, and those 16 are designated cryptogenic and subject to revision. This dataset includes the complete report from this study in PDF format and output from the relational database as spreadsheet files.

Tags: animals/invertebrates, aquatic habitat, benthic, benthic habitat, biological classification, biological survey, biology, biosphere, central pacific ocean, coastal processes, coastal studies, coral reef, coral reefs, coral species, coris_metadata, country/territory, earth science, fish, fish species, hawaii, hawaiian islands, honolulu, invertebrate species, kaneohe bay, kaneohe bay (21n157w0004), macroalgae species, marine biology, marine invertebrates, mhi, mollusk species, mollusks, numeric data sets, oahu, oahu (21n157w0003), oahu island, ocean basin, oceans, pacific ocean, united states of america
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce