Injection Wells in West Maui (fwd)
Coral Health and Monitoring Program
coral at coral.AOML.ERL.GOV
Tue Dec 26 22:12:11 UTC 1995
The following is a message from Ed Parnell of University of Hawaii, and is
herewith forwarded to the list. Sorry for the delay in posting, brought
about by the U.S. Government budget impasse. In the future, any messages
sent to coral-list at reef.aoml.noaa.gov will be automatically forwarded to
the list without need for human intervention (we hope!).
JCH
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 10:22:44 -1000 (HST)
From: Ed Parnell <parnell at soest.hawaii.edu>
To: Coral Health and Monitoring Program <coral at coral>
Subject: Re: Injection Wells in West Maui
Deb Schulman and Ed Laws in the oceanography dept. at UH found that
ammonia, nitrate, silicate (indicator of freshwater), and del N-15 ratios
were higher at Barbers Point and Ewa Beach than most other areas of Mamala
Bay. They implicated cesspools to account for the high ammonia and/or
groundwater intrusion from the Ewa plain (cultivated for sugar cane for
the last 100 years) to account for the other high variables. The pattern
of higher nutrients and del N-15 was robust over the ranges of seasonal
variation they observed. This work was part of the Mamala Bay study.
Brad Gould, in a separate study within the MBS, found that nitrate
concentrations were significantly correlated with wave energy. The
relationship was non-linear; nitrate concentrations increased with
increasing wave energy, and the slope at which nitrate concentrations
increased became steeper with increasing wave energy. Pore waters
(including groundwater) are pumped by increasing wave energy. This all
means that groundwater is a likely significant source of nitrate.
Algal diversity and biomass was quantified as part of MBS by Alison Kay
et al. They studied three areas; 1) the natatorium (Waikiki) 2) Sand
Isalnd and 3) Honouliuli. Algae were studied at three depths 7, 17, and
27 m during winter 94, summer 94, and winter 95. Temporal and spatial
variability of dry weight data was so great, just by looking at their
graphs (no stats done unfortunately), that no clear pattern emerged.
Algal diversity (as # of genera; no diversity indeces were calculated)
was highest at Barbers Point. Lynbia and Pterocladia were dominants at
all three sites.
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