Coral Ecology

COTs Removal: No Easy Feat

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Written by Carly Reeves Expedition Log: Cook Islands – Day 7 We’ve been chasing down the crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) here on Aitutaki for twelve days now, and I’ve got the scars to prove it. A spine to the leg / …

Launching Our Coral Reef Curriculum

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Written by Liz Rauer & Amy Heemsoth The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is proud to launch our brand new Coral Reef Education Portal! This custom-built online platform contains a comprehensive coral reef curriculum complete with lesson plans, quizzes, educational …

Worm snails

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Expedition Log: Cook Islands – Day 6 We’ve seen a lot of unusual and colorful creatures that attach to the surface of a coral, bore a hole into its skeleton, or become encased by the coral as it grows. Most …

Aitutaki’s Grazers

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Expedition Log: Cook Islands – Day 4 It is always exciting to visit a new place and to dive on new reefs. What I find remarkable is that you can tell so much about the state of a reef, the …

Charismatic Coral Cover Indicators

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Expedition Log: Cook Islands – Day 2 One of the most charismatic families of reef fish are the butterflyfish (Chaetodontidae). We’ve written about these species in previous blogs, but the importance of these species as an indicator of reef health …

Addressing Acanthaster in Aitutaki

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Expedition Log: Cook Islands – Day 1 Over the last four years, the Global Reef Expedition (GRE) has focused on the Pacific and Indian Ocean. These reefs are vastly different from Caribbean reefs, especially with regards to the numbers of …

BIOT’s Bounty – Part Two

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 27 In many ways, BIOT is a biogeographic crossroad in the central Indian Ocean. The archipelago is located in an area affected by extreme climate variability. In adjacent parts of the Indian Ocean, many of …

BIOT’s Bounty – Part One

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 26 My initial thoughts after a diving on BIOT’s reefs can be summed up in a few words: remote, largely inaccessible, seemingly untouched, and flourishing with life. BIOT’s Reefs teeming with life like these Golden …

Changing Coral Communities

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 25 Before starting a research mission in a new area, I compile lists of all the species of corals and fishes that are known to occur in an area. For some areas, such as BIOT, …

The secret seagrass beds of BIOT

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 23 Seagrass beds are found in many tropical coral reef lagoons around they world. They provide important ecosystem services, including sediment retention, juvenile fish habitat, and coastal protection. Historically, seagrasses have also been used as …