Layer: Chapter 2 - Environmental Setting (ID: 8)

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Name: Chapter 2 - Environmental Setting

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Description: NOTE: The layers presented here only represent a small sample of the spatial information compiled during this assessment. The entire data package is publicly avaialble for download on NOAA's NCEI's website: https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/access/index.html. For more information, please see: Costa, B.M., M. Poti, A.J. Winship, P.I. Miller and J. Gove. 2016. Chapter 2: Environmental Setting. Pp. 13-56. In Costa, B.M. and M.S. Kendall. (eds.). 2016. Marine Biogeographic Assessment of the Main Hawaiian Islands. OCS Study BOEM 2016-035 and NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 214. Silver Spring, MD. 359 pp. The biogeography of the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) is shaped by physical, biological and chemical conditions and processes that operate on different spatial scales around the islands and throughout the Hawaiian Archipelago. Here, we map and describe many of the physical and biological conditions and processes (i.e., environmental drivers) critical for understanding and predicting biogeographic patterns. At a broad scale, the MHI’s geographic location and isolation in the tropical Pacific Ocean keeps its climate relatively stable (compared to continental climates). Most climatic changes around the islands are driven by seasonal changes in the North Pacific Subtropical High and the Aleutian Low. Changes in these pressure systems create two seasons in the MHI: summer (May to October) and winter (November to April). The MHI’s winter is cooler, wetter and is dominated by the North Pacific swell with infrequent occurrences of Kona Winds (from the southwest). The MHI’s summer is warmer, drier and dominated by the northeasterly trade winds and trade wind swell. At finer scales, the MHI’s topography influences almost every aspect of its weather and climate. The peaks, slopes and valleys interact with persistent trade winds, changing their direction and speed, and causing the leeward sides of the islands to be warmer and drier. It also creates frequent, localized convergence, mixing, upwelling, fronts and eddies in the channels between the islands (i.e., the Kaiwi, Pailolo and ʻAlenuihānā Channels), and on the leeward sides of the islands (e.g., Kona Coast). These oceanographic patterns are also influenced by the interaction between currents and the MHI’s seafloor topography. Its steep, narrow shelf, numerous seamounts (e.g., Hawaiian and West Hawaiian Seamounts) and prominent banks (e.g., Middle Bank and Penguin Bank) change the speed and direction of surface and subsurface currents as they flow in between and around the MHI islands. Combined, the temporal and spatial variability in the climate and ocean created by these physical and biological processes drives the distributions of marine organisms, and broadly influences the biogeography of the MHIs.

Copyright Text: For web service, please acknowledge: NOAA NOS NCCOS CCMA Biogeography Branch

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