Coral Reef Resilience

Despite containing some of the healthiest coral reefs in the Indian Ocean, the impact of climate change has still been acutely felt in BIOT.  Successive ‘bleaching’ events have been observed with greater frequency and duration – a potentially lethal combination.

This programme of work is monitoring how different reefs in the territory respond to these warming and bleaching events over the short, medium and long-term.  By collaborating with scientists other aspects of BIOT’s marine environment, this work will also uncover the impact of a changing coral reef on the territory’s other animal and plant populations.