Reduction in Cover of Two Introduced Invasive Macroalgae by Herbivores on Coral Reefs of Kāne‘ohe Bay, Hawai‘i1

Abstract

Two introduced invasive red macroalgae, Eucheuma denticulatum (Burman) Collins & Hervey and Gracilaria salicornia C. Ag., progressively declined in abundance in Kāne‘ohe Bay, Hawai‘i, following ∼30 years of increase since their introduction in the mid-1970s. The declines were not the result of biological control or mechanical control efforts, but instead were the result of grazing by native herbivores, probably fishes, as demonstrated by field experiments conducted in 2014 with algal thalli exposed to, and protected from grazing. Two long-term time-series of the abundance of herbivorous fishes at Kāne‘ohe Bay patch and fringing reef sites indicated that the abundance of herbivorous fishes increased from 2007 through 2014 over the period when these macroalgae declined in cover. Analyses of data of algal cover from surveys of Kāne‘ohe Bay reefs carried out between 1996 and 2018 indicate that the declines in E. denticulatum and G. salicornia began in approximately 2008, several years before control programs commenced on some of the reefs in the bay. In addition to intense herbivory, high summer water temperatures in 2014 and 2015 may have contributed to the decline in E. denticulatum. Naturally occurring declines in the abundance of alien invasive marine algal species have rarely been reported in the literature. These reductions in macroalgal abundance are the second instance of decline in invasive macroalgae in Kāne‘ohe Bay since 2006, and have reduced competition between macroalgae and corals on reef flats and reef slopes across the bay.