Charles Birkeland
PhD University of Washington (Zoology), 1970
Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Zoology
Assistant Leader, Hawai’i Cooperative Fishery Research Unit
Department of Zoology, University of Hawai`i
2538 McCarthy Mall, Edmondson 152
Honolulu, HI 96822
phone: (808) 956-8350
fax: (808) 956-4238
charlesbirkeland@hotmail.com,
charlesb@hawaii.edu
Coral reef ecology and management, marine community ecology
[publications]
My research has been mainly on coral reef communities: 1) why some
recover from damage by human activities and others do not; and 2) how coral
reef resources should be managed. For the first topic, I’ve focused on
the interactions of crustose coralline algae, coral recruitment and herbivorous
fishes, and especially how these interactions are affected by overfishing
and by nutrient input. For the second topic, I’ve focused on the biological
characteristics and life histories of the targeted coral-reef species and
on the nature of ecosystem processes of coral reefs. These aspects are
both so different from those of other marine communities that the resources
of coral reefs must be managed in a fundamentally different way.
Since I’ve come to Hawaii, I have started to examine whether Marine
Protected Areas affect ecosystem processes such as coral recruitment and
substratum binding and whether MPAs increase the fisheries yield beyond
the MPA boundaries. The Hawaiian concept of ahupua’a, or management on
the basis of watershed, is being examined in the north coast valley of
Kahana as the output of the river increases.
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Representative publications
Birkeland C. 1997. Symbiosis, fisheries and economic development on coral
reefs. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 12: 364-367
Birkeland C. (ed.) Life and death of coral reefs. 1997. Chapman &
Hall, New York. 536 p.
Birkeland C. 1997. Disposable income in Asia - a new and powerful
external pressure against sustainability of coral reef resources
on Pacific islands. Reef Encounter 22: 9-13
Green AL, Birkeland CE, Randall RH, Smith BD, Wilkins S. 1997. 78 years
of coral reef degradation in Pago Pago Harbor: a quantitative record. Proc.
8th Internat. Coral Reef Symp., Panama 2: 1883-1888
Birkeland C. 1996. Why some species are especially influential on
coral reefs and others are not. Galaxea 13: 77-84
Birkeland C., Lucas JS. 1990. Acanthaster planci: major management
problem of coral reefs. CRC Press, Boca Raton. 257 p.
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