Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
Providing science-based solutions to protect and restore ocean health
On our Global Reef Expedition mission to French Polynesia, we had the chance to study many remote coral reefs, some of which had never been surveyed by scientists before. But of all the reefs we surveyed in French Polynesia, the …
French Polynesia was one of the most magnificent countries we studied on the Global Reef Expedition. While there, we experienced first-hand some of the most beautiful coral and fish communities in the world. There are times, though, when the data …
We are looking for educators and organizations to participate in the new Mangrove Detectives program! Mangrove Detectives is a citizen science program that consists of field and lab activities that involve students in the collection of unique data about disease …
About Mangrove Detectives Mangrove Detectives is a citizen science program that helps identify mangrove disease and insect communities, while at the same time providing unique educational opportunities for students. By coupling field and lab activities and online tools, students receive …
Scientists are looking to students across the Caribbean for their help studying the health of mangrove forests. This week, Dr. Ryann Rossi, a post-doctoral scholar at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), launched the Mangrove Detectives Project with help from the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation and Friends of the Environment. Mangrove Detectives is a new citizen-science project that teaches students valuable laboratory and field skills while they document mangrove disease and insect communities in their local mangrove forest. The project provides teachers, non-profit organizations, and environmental educators with free lesson plans, field kits, and laboratory materials to help their students study threats to their local mangrove forest and become part of an international community of Mangrove Detectives.
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is now accepting entries for the 2020 Science Without Borders® Challenge! This annual art contest inspires students from all over the world to be creative while learning about important ocean science and conservation issues. The theme for this year’s competition is “Take Action: Conserve Coral Reefs,” and scholarships of up to $500 will be awarded to the winning entries.
The Challenge is open to all students who are 11-19 years old and enrolled in primary or secondary school (or the home-school equivalent). Entries must be received by Monday, April 20, to be eligible to win.
In 2011, scientists from the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation set out on a mission to explore the remote coral reefs of the world. An international team of scientists, photographers, videographers and conservationists, as well as local leaders, were assembled to map, characterize, and evaluate coral reefs throughout the western Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. They wanted to take a snapshot of the reefs in time, to survey and map the reefs and assess their health before it was too late.
There are too many good memories to share, but I want to reflect on a few of the more unforgettable ones from my last five years implementing the J.A.M.I.N. program. And I don’t need to look at the data collected from our surveys to know that the program is reaching students and teachers in a meaningful way. Whether the gesture is great or small, what has most convinced me that we are making a difference is the appreciation, interest, and eagerness expressed by our students and teachers in Jamaica.
For the past eight years, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation conducted a large-scale scientific research mission called the Global Reef Expedition (GRE). The primary goals of the GRE were to map and characterize coral reef ecosystems, identify their current status and major threats, and examine factors that enhance their ability to survive—and recover from—major disturbance events. Now, scientists at the Living Oceans Foundation are focused on analyzing data collected on the Global Reef Expedition and publishing reports that can be used to guide coral reef management.
A study from scientists at the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation and the University of Miami offers a new way to accurately map coral reefs using a combination of Earth-orbiting satellites and field observations. Using this new method, the scientists mapped over 65,000 km2 of coral reefs and surrounding habitats–by far the largest collection of high-resolution coral reef maps ever made.
