Eventually, discrete events will disrupt portions of the benthos community. 

 Strong onshore winds rip the benthic algae loose from the bottom, and some of 

 that material is swept from the system. The filter feeding animals and other 

 detritivores will largely survive until they are killed by fresh water and/or 

 sediment inputs, although some will starve from lowered planktonic food 

 availabUity. 



The benthos community of the southeast sector is dramatically different 

 from the reef community which was once found there, although historical data 

 are insufficient to document the gain or loss of taxa. Corals, which once 

 dominated the reefs there, as elsewhere in the bay, survive as isolated 

 specimens. Benthic algal biomass locally exceeds pre-sewage biomass and shows 

 large temporal fluctuation. The reef community structure has been obliterated. 

 Benthos recovery will be back towards a coral-dominated, low-algal biomass 

 community only if there is adequate substratum for coral settlement; if the 

 periods between the interruptions by freshwater runoff are sufficient for 

 community succession to proceed to the successful recruitment of corals; and 

 if sediment nutrient release cannot maintain the high algal biomass. Banner (1) 

 reported some coral recovery, in areas not otherwise significantly stressed, 

 within three years of the 1965 "freshwater kill" previously mentioned. A 

 return to coral dominance, if it ever occurs, will probably take one or more 

 decades; shorter-term recovery patterns should indicate the direction of 

 environmental rebound. 



SUMMARY 



1 . The present biological structure of Kaneohe Bay may be related to the 

 combination of catastrophic lethal events (runoff) and chronic biological 

 stimulation (sewage discharge). 



2- The nutrient deposition as particulate materials in bay sediments and 

 subsequent release from those sediments is an important and previously 

 imdocumented part of the internal nutrient cycle within the bay. This efficient 

 cycle allows very Uttle nutrient loss from the bay and comprises an 

 instantaneous nutrient delivery to the water column comparable in magnitude 

 to the sewage input. Of course, the sediment release contrasts with the sewage 

 input in being a diffuse, rather than a point-source, delivery of nutrients to the 

 water column. 



3. The planktonic portion of the biota can respond rapidly to alteration of 

 environmental regimes, by virtue of advective exchange with more nearly 

 oligotiophic waters in the absence of the point-source sewage discharge. The 

 plankton of the bay retain relatively minor vestiges of the 1965 freshwater kill. 

 The plankton of the southeast sector should shift rapidly to a post-sewer 



358 



