title: Historical reconstruction reveals recovery in Hawaiian coral reefs.
abstract: Coral reef ecosystems are declining worldwide, yet regional differences in the trajectories, timing and extent of degradation highlight the need for in-depth regional case studies to understand the factors that contribute to either ecosystem sustainability or decline. We reconstructed social-ecological interactions in Hawaiian coral reef environments over 700 years using detailed datasets on ecological conditions, proximate anthropogenic stressor regimes and social change. Here we report previously undetected recovery periods in Hawaiian coral reefs, including a historical recovery in the MHI (~AD 1400-1820) and an ongoing recovery in the NWHI (~AD 1950-2009+). These recovery periods appear to be attributed to a complex set of changes in underlying social systems, which served to release reefs from direct anthropogenic stressor regimes. Recovery at the ecosystem level is associated with reductions in stressors over long time periods (decades+) and large spatial scales (>10(3) km(2)). Our results challenge conventional assumptions and reported findings that human impacts to ecosystems are cumulative and lead only to long-term trajectories of environmental decline. In contrast, recovery periods reveal that human societies have interacted sustainably with coral reef environments over long time periods, and that degraded ecosystems may still retain the adaptive capacity and resilience to recover from human impacts.
authors: Department of Geography, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawai'i, United States of America. jkittinger@gmail.com
authors: John N
authors: JN
authors: Kittinger
authors: John M
authors: JM
authors: Pandolfi
authors: Jonathan H
authors: JH
authors: Blodgett
authors: Terry L
authors: TL
authors: Hunt
authors: Hong
authors: H
authors: Jiang
authors: Kepā
authors: K
authors: Maly
authors: Loren E
authors: LE
authors: McClenachan
authors: Jennifer K
authors: JK
authors: Schultz
authors: Bruce A
authors: BA
authors: Wilcox
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058448:Biota; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000266:history*; D057894:Coral Reefs; D005843:Geography; D006254:Hawaii; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological