ISLAND OF MOLOKAI

KUPEKE FISHPOND/reef flat

Several areas were surveyed at this site beginning at the shore side of the pond. This pond was quite large and was bordered on either side by houses. The substrate within the pond was almost entirely soft sediment with an occasional small rock interspersed throughout. All of these small rocks were colonized by macroalgae including Cladophora spp., Enteromorpha spp., Ulva fasciata, Spyridia filamentosa, Grateloupia filicina, Acanthophora spicifera and Hypnea musciformis. The algal community was dominated by chlorophytes closest to shore near an apparent fresh water source and became dominated by rhodophytes by the wall facing the ocean. Some sites were also surveyed outside of the pond on the reef flat. This area was also very soft bottomed and was dominated by the endemic seagrass Halophila hawaiiana and a new unidentified seagrass species. Many species of Caulerpa were also found inhabiting the soft bottom here. Any hard substrate on the reef flat was colonized by the macroalgal species Acanthophora spicifera, Hypnea musciformis, Spyridia filamentosa and Dictyota acutiloba and the cyanobacteria Lyngbya. Moving toward the reef crest, some patchy coral colonies were found but this area was pretty silty and they didn’t look particularly healthy. This was the first site that Hypnea musciformis was found.

Table 1.  Information regarding site characteristics and alien species abundances. The  number recorded for each alien species of algae is a ranking of the abundance of that species at each given site. Impact ranking values range from 0 (not present) to 10 (100% cover). 

Table 2.  Species list of all of the algal samples that were collected at this site. Alien species are displayed in green.  

Table 3.  Species list and relative abundance of herbivores at this location.