[Coral-List] Re: Bleaching Event in Northeast Madagascar

Research - Shoals Rodrigues research at shoals.intnet.mu
Wed Mar 23 00:16:22 EST 2005


In response to Simon Harding and Bemahafaly Randriamanantsoa's email, I would also like to report a coral bleaching event in Rodrigues (Republic of Mauritius). Initial surveys have found severe bleaching on the shallow reef flats at 1-3m depth with almost 100% of Acropora digitifera and >75% of branching (A. austera, A. abrotanoides) and tabular (A. cytherea, A. clathrata) Acropora colonies affected. Other species such as Montipora aequituberculata, Pocillopora spp., Favia stelligera, massive Porites sp., Porites rus and Platygyra daedalea exhibited partial-total bleaching as did soft corals and zoanthids (Palythoa sp.). Bleaching was observed down to 5m depth, where it mainly affected branching and tabular Acropora species. Seawater temperatures have been measured as being up to 32oC and as in Madagascar, the area has been subjected to a period of unusually hot and calm weather. Further surveys are now being carried out to assess the extent and severity of the bleaching event around the whole island.

I would be interested to know if bleaching events have been recorded at other locations ion the Indian Ocean.

Emily Hardman

----------------------------------------
Dr Emily Hardman
Science Coordinator
Shoals Rodrigues
Marine Research, Training & Education Centre,
Pointe Monier,
Rodrigues,
Mauritius

Tel: 00 230 831 1225
Fax: 00 230 831 0287
Website: http://www.shoals-rodrigues.org



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