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Data on invasive corallimorphs Palmyra

Metadata Updated: January 10, 2026

Invasive marine species are well documented but options to manage them are limited. At Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge (Central North Pacific), native invasive corallimorpharians, Rhodactis howesii, have smothered live native corals since 2007. Laboratory and field trials were conducted evaluating two control methods to remove R. howesii overgrowing the benthos at Palmyra Atoll (Palmyra): 1) toothpaste mixed with chlorine, citric acid, or sodium hydroxide (NaOH), and 2) hot water. Paste mixed with NaOH had the most efficacious kill in mesocosm trials and resulted in >90% kill over a 98 m2 area three days after treatment. Hot water at 82C was most effective in mesocosms; in the field hot water was less effective than paste but still resulted in a kill of ca. 75% over 100 m2 three days after treatment. Costs of paste and heat (excluding capital equipment and costs of regulatory approval should this method be deployed large scale) were $70/m2 and $59/m2 respectively. Invasive R. howesii currently occupy ca 5,800,000 m2 of reef at Palmyra with ca. 276,000 m2 comprising heavily infested areas. Several potential management strategies are discussed based on costs of treatment, area covered, and the biology of the invasion. The methods described here expand the set of tools available to manage invasive species in complex marine habitats.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date January 10, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 10, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 10, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 10, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_62c85780d34eeb1417bb18bb
Data Last Modified 2022-09-07T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 1b861431-cd1d-4338-bc00-a63a15356165
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -162.3185, 5.6664, -161.8375, 6.0964
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 01103c00df8ae60e2b9927a1d2976531b89efcb425962795acc6b0567e37b322
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -162.3185, 5.6664, -162.3185, 6.0964, -161.8375, 6.0964, -161.8375, 5.6664, -162.3185, 5.6664}

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