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Dadhich, A.P., and Nadaoka, K., 2012. Analysis of terrestrial discharge from agricultural watersheds and its impact on nearshore and offshore reefs in Fiji. The coral reef ecosystems are rapidly deteriorating due to intense anthropogenic perturbations in the river basins in northwest Viti Levu Island, Fiji. This study aimed to assess the change in benthic cover as influenced by terrestrial loadings from the 14 adjoining agriculturally dominated (especially sugarcane) coastal watersheds using remote sensing, a geographic information system (GIS), and a physically based, distributed hydrological model. An integrated modeling framework with land-use change was constructed to simulate the runoff, sediment yield, and nutrient discharge using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. The impact of terrestrial discharge on the coastal ecosystem was investigated by spatio-temporal analysis (1992–2007) of the benthic cover using Landsat TM/ETM+ data. Due to the cropland expansion, a significant amo... |
