Scientific Surveys

Dartfishes

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 16 For the past few weeks I have descended into Palau’s waters each day with my two vital pieces of equipment: a tape measure reel and writing slate. My job on this mission is to …

The Chemical Reef

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 15 Corals reefs capture our imagination with their extreme beauty and diversity, and so when we think about a reef, it usually brings to mind colorful imagery of teeming fish, strange forms of corals, and …

Blennies and Gobies

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 14 The Indo-Pacific is home to a high diversity of small, elongate bottom dwellers— blennies and gobies. From low visibility sandy bottoms to high-energy outer reefs, blennies and gobies have made a prominent appearance in …

Kleptoparasites on the Reef

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 13 On a previous mission someone had taken a photo of a coral with a strange patchy brownish “discoloration.” When I was asked if I had any idea what was being shown in the picture …

Troubling Taxonomy

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Expedition Log – Day 12 One of the largest challenges for our coral surveys is the proper identification of the corals.  When measuring and counting corals along transects we rarely identify them to species, mainly because there are some 450 …

Turning Back the Hands of Time

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 11 On most of the barrier reefs we’ve examined off the south and west coast of  Palau, the coral community has been thriving, with 60-90% of the bottom covered in a diverse assemblage of branching, …

Blue, You Say?

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 10 While I perform my task of taking coral photo transects during our survey dives, I get a close look at the reef (one square meter at a time). One side effect of focusing my …

Angaur’s Marine Lakes

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 9 After surveying the reefs located off Angaur, an oceanic Island about 10 km south of Peliliu, we headed ashore to explore the island.  Tucked away in a lush tropical rainforest at the northwestern end …

Rebirth of the Forest

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Expedition Log: Palau – Day 8 1998 was a bad year for coral reefs. In many parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans an unprecedented coral bleaching event swept across the reefs, killing much of the coral.  In some countries, …

New Study Reveals Worrying Future for Corals

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Written by Alison Barrat A new paper, Galápagos coral reef persistence after ENSO warming across an acidification gradient, gives a more detailed picture than ever of how ocean acidification and increased ocean temperatures combine to spell disaster for the worlds reefs, …