By Natalie Prinz, ISATEC student at the University of Bremen and the ZMT. A 18km2 small near-atoll named Aitutaki was “home” from October 2016 till March 2017, one of 15 islands of the self-governing island country, the Cook Islands. The island is known for its 50km2 large, very shallow (deepest …
The REPICORE team headed back out to the Pacific in mid-June, only this time the final destination was not a Melanesian island but a Polynesian one – Oahu in Hawai’i. Instead of fieldwork, the purpose of this trip was to attend the 13th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Honolulu, …
By Akuila Cakacaka Four months after the devastating impact of tropical Cyclone Winston, I visited the villages of Nakodu and Tuatua on Koro island and Natokalau village on Ovalau island to understand how the people have coped with the effects and aftermath of the storm. These villages were some of …
Coral reefs are a food source for millions of people in the tropics, but many do not deliver the expected catch any more. What influences fish abundance in these environments? An international team of 39 researchers explored this question on 2,500 reefs in 46 countries and collected a tremendous amount …
Three weeks ago, the largest cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere hit Fiji. At the time that the cyclone hit, the water around Fiji was around 1.5°C higher than usual, and consequently was experiencing high amounts of coral bleaching (see previous blog). Unusually high water temperatures are associated to …
So it seems that Fiji has been unable to escape the extreme water temperatures of the 2015/2016 El Niño after all. Two of our team members (Steven and Ryan) last week reported temperatures in Savusavu (on the south of Vanua Levu) rising to over 35°C in shallow reefs. Further west …
The transition from fieldwork into a laboratory is an interesting one; from days baking in the sun (or soaking in the rain) filled with carrying tanks and diving gear, spending hours underwater and living in a wetsuit to days sitting in a lab, wearing a lab coat, dealing with corrosive …
Tiles at our deeper site within the tabu (closed to fishing) area fixed onto pavement and secured at an angle to prevent sedimentation. One of the tiles which was adjusted to contain a microstructure, with 196 holes (1mm deep) on both the top and underside. A coral recruit from within …
(Updates from Steven on his sea cucumber project – sorry for the late upload)! Alright. Another week in the field done and dusted. Here I/we stand at t=2 done, which means I now have 3 data points for SOC and DOC, another set of sediment cores from each enclosure, and …
Great news for two of the MSc students on our team: Ryan McAndrews and Steven Lee will both receive financial support for their work from the Rufford Foundation. In addition, the project of Ryan McAndrews will be supported with funds from the Kellner & …
