As the anniversary of Maui’s devastating wildfires approaches on August 8, UH News interviewed water quality expert Andrea Kealoha, an assistant professor in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Department of Oceanography. Kealoha and her team have been analyzing the impacts the wildfires had on Maui’s coral reefs.
Kealoha studies coral reef stressors including local stressors such as nutrient pollution, sedimentation and coastal acidification. She also looks at global stressors such as warming and ocean acidification.
What was the community’s response to your team’s efforts?
Immediately after the fires, our community was in response and recovery mode. We were focused on lives and getting people food, water and shelter. And then within a few weeks, we expanded our attention to water—water is life (ola i ka wai). And so our community was concerned about coastal water quality and coral reef health. Here we are a year later, and that is still a major concern.
The community and our partners have responded well to our efforts because we’re in constant communication and collaboration with them. Our community has guided site selection; they participate in our field work. And so this is really an effort of a larger group, not just our group at UH Mānoa.
What has your water testing revealed?
So far we have measured high levels of copper and zinc for metals, and we’re also seeing high concentrations of nutrients in coastal waters. There has not been alot of research on the impact of zinc on coral reefs, but we have a lot of information about the detrimental impacts of high copper and nutrient concentrations to coral reef health.
We’ve collected samples approximately monthly following the fires and we just finished a sampling in early August. And then we have hundreds of samples that need to be analyzed, which we’ll be working on over the next several months.
What is the benefit of autosampling data?
The auto samplers are kind of like a robot. We can program the auto sampler, which is attached to bags, to collect water samples at intervals throughout a 24-hour period. These data give us information on the “breath” and growth of the reef. They are also a really important tool for collecting nighttime signals of the reef, since its logistically challenging to collect samples on the reef at night.
What is the importance of the ocean in Native Hawaiian culture?
One of the core values in Hawaiian culture is aloha ʻāina, to care for the land, and that also includes our ocean. In Hawaiʻi, we recognize the importance of caring for our oceans and all the resources that it provides.
The ocean is so critical to the health of our culture. It’s a place that we get our food. It’s a place that we gather. It’s a place where we conduct our traditional practices. And so it’s really important that we have a healthy coastal ecosystem not just for the immediate health of our community and our culture, but also for the perpetuation of our culture.
In the kumulipo, which is our creation chant, the koʻa or the coral polyp is the first organism to emerge from the ocean, and the human is actually the last thing to be created. So from early on, Hawaiians recognized how important corals were as the the basic building blocks of the entire ecosystem.
