Mangareva contains more diverse coral habitats than anything we have seen to date. Parts of the outside rim of the atoll are emergent. The cross sectional profile starts with a classic reef flat, 10 m wide in places and often
Cauliflower coral, in the genus Pocillopora, are among the most widely distributed and most abundant corals found on the fore reef. These branching corals are covered with small bumps (called verrucae), which contain corallites and help in the identification of
During our surveys in the Acteon group we saw very few fish. There were few sharks or other large predators and even large herbivorous fish such as surgeonfishes and parrotfishes were noticeably low in number. The Acteon fish communities were
We have arrived in Mangareva, having just completed surveys in the remote Acteon Group. Each of the four atolls we surveyed was small, about 5 to 10 km2 including the lagoon. This meant we were able to do all our
Navigation hazards are many in Hao Atoll, due to a myriad of submerged patch reefs that rise to the surface from the 60 m deep lagoon floor. These reefs are distributed in a seemingly random pattern. Some are circular and
“Ocean acidification” is a term you may have heard in relation to coral reefs. As carbon dioxide increases in the air, the amount in the ocean goes up as well. The increased carbon dioxide makes the ocean water more acidic,
Like other animals, corals need to reproduce to survive. Unlike most other animals, corals are attached to the seafloor and cannot move around to find a mate for coral reproduction. To address this challenge, corals have developed several alternative reproductive
Mention coral reefs and most people think of sweeping landscapes of corals, sponges, and fish. While those do exist in Hao Atoll, researchers are also seeing the reef through different lenses. Satellite Imagery for Reef Habitats and Geomorphology of Coral
Research dives can be distilled down to lists of what is seen and what is not seen. Surveying the reef means figuring out what is there and what is missing. For the last few days, the science team has been
After a 3.5 hour flight on the Golden Eye, we reached Hao to begin our third research mission in French Polynesia at Gambier. Hao is a large (56 km X 15 km), low-lying coral atoll at the southeastern end of
