Investigators: Jens Zinke (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research); C. Reason (University of Cape Town); Matthieu Rouault (University of Cape Town); Tim McClanahan (WCS Kenya); Josef Maina (Kenya); Christopher Muhando and Ophery Ilomo (IMS Zanzibar); Bemahafaly Randriamanantsoa (WCS Madagascar); Monica Tombolahy, (Conservation International); Steve Mwangi (KMFRI Kenya) and Manvendra Singh (MOI Mauritius); Malcolm McCulloch (UWA Perth, Australia); Miriam Pfeiffer and Lars Reuning (RWTH Aachen, Germany); Gert-Jan Brummer and C. Grove (Royal NIOZ, The Netherlands) and Jan Vermaat and J. Aerts (VU Universiteit Amsterdam )
MAP OF STUDY SITES
To be included later
PROJECT SUMMARY
This study proposes to examine the spatial and temporal environmental changes affecting coral reef ecosystems in the Western Indian Ocean. The specific objectives of the study are: 1) To reconstruct sea surface temperature, river runoff and nutrient export on historical time scales by geochemical monitoring of massive coral growth banding spanning the western Indian Ocean. 2) To study the effect of ocean acidification on coral growth and calcification on a large-scale for nearshore and open ocean reefal systems throughout the western Indian Ocean. 3) To quantify the effects of long-term climate and land-cover changes on reefal ecosystems by integrating remote sensing and hydrological modelling with coral data for 100 years.
