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University of Hawaii, School of
Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
CISNet Kaneohe Bay Kaneohe Bay, characterized as "one of the most intensively studied coral reef systems in the world", is located on the windward NE coast of Oahu, Hawaii. The Bay is about 13 km long by 4 km wide with an average depth of about 8 m. The waters of the Bay are protected from the tradewind swell by a "barrier" reef that marks the windward margin of the Bay. This protection allows extensive coral reef development within the Bay. Patch reefs (more than 40) and fringing reefs provide habitat and shelter to coral reef fishes, invertebrates, algae and seagrasses. The Kaneohe watershed is made up of five units, each originating as high (800 m) pali or cliffs that drop steeply to talus slopes which give way to the coastal plain that rims the southwest and north margins of the Bay. Land use in the watershed ranges from urban in the south to agriculture and conservation in the north, presenting a variety of effects on the Bay itself. Several of the streams draining the watershed are gauged . The Bay, even though adjacent to a watershed with a wide range of land uses, is one of the most oligotrophic embayments in the US. A model of the nutrient dynamics in this system has been worked out, and a circulation model of the Bay waters is also available. Kaneohe Bay is home to the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology ( HIMB ), the marine laboratory arm of the University of Hawaii School of Ocean, Earth Sciences and Technology ( SOEST ). HIMB maintains a weather station where air and water temperature, rainfall, wind speed, and solar radiation are recorded. In addition, NOAA maintains a tide gauging station at HIMB.
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