1.5 Productivity
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Statutory Documents - IMO Publications and Documents - Resolutions - Marine Environment Protection Committee - Resolution MEPC.171(57) - Designation of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area - (Adopted on 4 April 2008) - Annex 2 - Ecological, Socio-economic, and Scientific Attributes of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument PSSA1 - 1 Ecological Criteria - 1.5 Productivity

1.5 Productivity

  1.5.1 Coral reef ecosystems have the highest gross primary productivity of all ocean areas, and the proposed area contains several thousand square miles of coral reefs, indicating a highly productive ecosystem. Also indicative of the area’s productivity is the high incidence of apex predators such as sharks, jacks, and groupers, which make up more than half of the total fish biomass in the NWHI. A very high replacement rate of small and mid-size fish is necessary to support an apex predator-dominated ecosystem.

  1.5.2 The productivity of the proposed area can readily be seen by comparing it to the productivity in the main Hawaiian Islands. A comparison of both biomass and trophic structure between reef fish communities in the NWHI and the main Hawaiian Islands showed that across similar habitats, biomass was 260 per cent higher in the NWHI (Friedlander and DeMartini 2002). Productivity is especially high in the area’s inshore waters, shallow lagoons, and coral reefs. For example, the lagoon in French Frigate Shoals produces nearly ten times the amount of phytoplankton as produced in the same volume of water in the open seas. The area also has extensive submerged banks, which have high levels of primary productivity due to the existence of expansive algal meadows. Furthermore, while apex predators represent only three per cent of the fish biomass in the main Hawaiian Islands, they make up 54 per cent of the biomass in the NWHI (Suthers 2004).

Parent topic: 1 Ecological Criteria
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