High Resolution Monitoring
This year we formed a collaborative team (co-led by the Madin and Gates Coral Labs) to record coral bleaching and recovery over time at 31 sites in Kāneʻohe Bay using 3D photomosaics (covering ~120m2). We will use this data to answer questions about structure, fish communities and how small differences in historical temperatures at different reefs protect against or exaggerate bleaching through conditioning or local adaptation. We have historical temperature data from these sites in addition to tagged Montipora capitata colonies that have been monitored over time as part of our "living library". The Gates Coral Lab has collected coral samples, water samples and measured water chemistry while our collaborators monitor fish camera traps, conduct microbial sampling and use eDNA to assess cryptic diversity. Surveys will be completed bi-weekly until the end of 2019 or when corals have had time to recover from the bleaching event (for those colonies that have the ability to recover).